God’s people for eighteen years stubbornly kept their idolatries close by, and were slow to cry out for God’s help. This is a struggle for us also. Do you struggle with besetting sins? Have certain sins or sinful behaviours been around for even longer than eighteen years? How many times is the battle that takes place in our lives a battle because we don’t really believe that God will give grace to overcome the enemy? God has said, cry out boldly to me, in the righteousness of Christ, to the throne of grace, that you might find grace in your time of need. How often is the issue not whether we believe or not, but instead that we are actually far too complacent in our sins, idolatries, compromises, not being bothered by our enslavement to this or that sin? Do you continue to wrestle in one area or another because you’ve been slow to cry out to the Lord for deliverance? Nothing less than divine deliverance will rescue us from all our idols, and that deliverance comes in response to crying out. Cry out for that heavenly grace.