Little by Little

The Lord your God will drive out these nations before you little by little. You will not be able to destroy them all at once; otherwise, the wild animals will become too numerous for you. (Dt. 7:22)

When you eat and are full, and build beautiful houses to live in, and your herds and flocks grow large, and your silver and gold multiply, and everything else you have increases, be careful that your heart doesn’t become proud and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. (Dt. 8:11-14)


We’re in our new house, but it’s not complete. We have wires sticking out in many places where plugs will soon be; only the three bedrooms have flooring, so there’s concrete and concrete dust everywhere; our shower isn’t tiled yet so we’re all taking baths in the guest bathroom; my dishwasher and garbage disposal still don’t have any power yet; and the list goes on.

This morning as I was getting dressed for the day, everywhere I went in the house, and everything I did, I thought to myself “I’ll be glad when this is done,” or “I can’t wait until that is finished.” After many of these thoughts had gone through my head, I told myself to have patience - it would all get done in time. Then the scriptures from Deuteronomy I had been reading came to my mind. You see, before moving into this house I had adamantly declared that I didn’t want to move in here until everything was completely finished and we could just simply move in. But of course it didn’t work out that way. We leased our other house and the move date moved up. So here we are – unfinished chaos for now.

When the Israelites were preparing to go into the Promised Land, Moses told them they would need to take it little by little or the wild animals might overtake them. And once they were there, they needed to be careful not to forget God. It occurred to me as I was wishing for completeness and telling myself to be patient, that if things had been done the way I wanted them to be, perhaps the “wild animal” of pride would have attacked me. Maybe I would have been proud of what “we” had accomplished, instead of what God had accomplished. But instead, I have to be in constant prayer not to get frustrated, I have to pray for God to help us pay for everything, I have to pray for wisdom to know the best way to do things, I have to pray for strength to complete the work, I have to pray for healing for sore muscles and injured joints. Get the picture? Instead of pride, I now find myself drawn closer to the Lord in prayer and thanksgiving. Thanksgiving? I thought we were talking about patience. Yes, in all the chaos and mess, I also find myself seeing the “promised land” here, and the gift that God has given us in this place, and I thank Him for it all. So I guess little by little is ok. For now.