And He gave them their request

.... But sent leanness into their soul (Psalm 106:15). The Lord was reminding me this morning how easy it is for me to backslide. Speaking of the many vacillations of Israel, the previous two verses read “They soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, And tested God in the desert.” How easy it is to forget, how easy to be impatient, how easy to think we have got it, and to act independently of His council, how easily we are drawn away by our own lusts (James 1:14). How easy all this is for me. On the other hand, it is also very easy to be overconfident thinking that this will never be me. But the latter case the Scripture warns “Let he who thinks he stands, take care lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

So there are two errors. We can be overconfident with the accompanying tendency to judge others (but see Matthew 7:1-5), or we can feel powerless. And feeling that powerlessness, we can drift back back into old ways, medicating our pain in the multitude of way we do that. And then we can swing from one extreme to the other! But coming back to what the Lord showed me this morning, the words of an old hymn come to mind “He can save, He can keep.” It's Biblical, firstly “He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). Our part of course, is to come to Him. Secondly with Paul we need to put our confidence in Him to keep us, to know our identity in Him, and to be “persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Timothy 1:12).

There is an interesting verse that it relevant to all this. Jesus speaking says “And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better'" (Luke 5:39). In recovery we learn that the new ways are better, but there are likely times when we want to go back to the old ways of coping. We need, by the Spirit, to put to death the deeds and the desires of the old nature (Romans 8:13; Galatians 5:24). And we also need to consider the end of the old ways. They bring leanness to our souls. The Lord asks us though Isaiah “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance” (Isaiah 55:2). And for me when I am tempted to go back, I need to remind myself of the pain of the past, so that I do not choose leanness, but rather with His help to choose abundance in my soul.

Father, when we are drawn away it is so easy, like ancient Israel, to idealize the old ways, to remember the old wine, the fish and the cucumbers, the leeks and the garlic (Numbers 11:5), and forget the bondage. It is insanity Lord. Iif it were not for You Lord, who could stand? But with You all things are possible. Thank You Lord Jesus that You ever live to intercede for me, and that You are more than able to keep what I have committed unto You. I praise You Lord Jesus in Your precious Name Amen