Do we excuse our vices or are we committed to complete victory over them by driving them out of our lives?

In the book of Judges, we see the Israelites didn't take God seriously when He warned against the moral and spiritual pollution of the Canaanites and their idols. The Israelites mingled with them, traded with them, sometimes enslaved them, and eventually began to intermarry with them and worship pagan idols with them. The Israelites set themselves up for decline and collapse when they failed to obey God's commandments. They settled for half a victory.

Before we judge the Israelites too harshly, we need to examine ourselves and ask: Have we settled for half a victory over our sin and self-defeating habits? Have we driven out our bad habits of gossip, lust, bitterness, anger, foul language, or addiction? Do we excuse our vices or are we committed to complete victory over them by driving them out of our lives? These "small" compromises (at least we like to think of them as small) are an accommodation with the enemy. We are symbolically mingling and intermarrying with the Canaanites -- and if we do not drive them out, we will end up defeated.

Prayer: God, help me to see my foolishness and sin. Forgive me. Help me to drive out small compromises and give me complete victory, that I might become more like Christ. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:2-3).