Did They Get it All

Let's use our imagination for a moment. Let's say you have been having some continuous pain for a while and you make yourself an appointment with a Doctor. After running some test the Doctor wants to meet with you and your spouse. He then tells the both of you that there were some lumps found that was causing your problem and that the lumps were Cancerous. Then he adds that there are more forms of treatment and successful cancer surgeries than there have ever been. So a date is set to remove the lumps. What would be the first words out of your mouth after the surgery? Would they be "Did they get all the cancer!" I think that would be my first words. A little cancer that's missed can actually end up destroying so very much. That is why it should be the surgeon's goal to do his very best to remove all the cancer. That's what God seems to be saying to His people in Numbers 33:55
But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.
The Israelites removed some of the cancer of idolatrous and immoral cultures, but not all of it. What they didn't remove kept coming back to attack for generations to come. That was bad in itself but worse that they were attracted to some of the culture they were supposed to get rid of. Compromise brought down the judgment of God and it ultimately even cost them their land.

For over 30 years I have been working with people who want real solutions to their problems. The problem I see that keeps coming up is they want their problems gone but they want to compromise. This always brings big problems. They want to keep their marriage but want to able to see their lover too. That will never work. They want to quit drinking or doing drugs but want to still go to the same place and hang with the same people. They want to fix their depression but don't want to go back and find out what is causing the depression. If you are going to get rid of the cancer you have to get of it all! A man some time ago got out of prison and wanted me to give him some advice so he wouldn't start back drinking. I asked him did he plan on going back to the same places and people he was hanging around before he went to prison. He told me that he was for those are the only friends he knew. I then asked him how many letters or times did these friends come to visit him while he was in prison? He told me they never wrote or came. I said then you don't have any friends do you? Proverbs 18:24
A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. He didn't want to get rid of it all. That is like a person coming from a cancer operation and saying I hope they didn't get all the cancer. We want our problems gone but we don't want to get rid of all that is causing them because everything is not all bad we think. Ask the mechanic if he thinks all the small steal shavings should be removed from the newly rebuilt engine. I think he would agree if you want your problem solved yes they must all be removed. So it is with all problems; mine, yours or anyone's. Too many compromise and therefore forfeit the solution and think they can handle problems they never could before and wonder why they failed! To get what we've never had, we must do what we've never done. I would write that down if you want something different!