Lest You Forget

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Daily Devotions with Pastor Chuck

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From the book of Deuteronomy we read,

“Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God . . . lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when you heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD . . . then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.” (Deuteronomy 8: 11-14, 17 – NKJV)

One of the many dangers that we must seek to avoid is that of “forgetting the Lord (our) God.” Here in the book of Deuteronomy Moses warns Israel to “beware” of doing this very thing. He warns them that “when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied . . . beware” that you do not say, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained this wealth.”

God had led His people out of bondage by mighty acts. He had been the One who had provided for them food and water and eventually the place in which to build their homes and grow their “flocks.” If they had these things it was from His hand that they had come. If they had “silver” and “gold,” it was from His hand that they had such. In the midst of material things God warns His people not to forget where these blessings had come from, and thus, forget Him.

Materialism can have a destructive effect. The Bible warns us to not be seduced into thinking that when we have our bounty that we think that it is by our “power” and our “might” that we have “gained this . . . wealth” and thus, “forget the Lord.”

Materialism . . . defined it means that which “Reduces life to the sentiment, ‘I am what I have’ . . . It elevates that which we can see, touch, taste, and smell and, most importantly, possess, to the place of greatest prominence.” Materialism can actually lead us to “forget the Lord.” In the midst of material things, that which can be seen and touched and that serves to comfort, we can actually forget God. It happened to Israel and it can happen to us. For that matter, it has happened in America. People are of the mind that what they have they have gained by their own doing. Gratefulness has become a lost response in the midst of great wealth and material possessions, and the result . . . God has been forgotten. Sinful man always wants to end up giving himself the credit, to bask in his own glory. Materialism becomes a means by which he can do just that.

If you are a Christian you have been delivered out of the slave market of sin by the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 6). You have prospered not in the things which you have done but by that which He has done. And in this new life in Christ, from the Word of God, you have gained insight into the provisions of the Lord. All that we have, both spiritually and materially, we now realize has come by the hand of God . . . . not by our “power” or our “might.” And the Scripture warns us to “beware” . . . lest when you have” you forget that.

Have a good day brethren . . . and as you walk do so with a grateful heart, giving thanks in all things and for all things to the Lord.