Never Forget God in our Prosperity

Beware lest you say in your heart, "my power and and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth."

(Deuteronomy 8:17)

Deuteronomy 8 is largely dealing with the warning to the nation of Israel to not forget especially in light of the prosperity they are about to receive from God as they enter the promised land. Evidently the Jews were susceptible to forgetting God and this is why a warning is given to them here in this chapter and this warning is as relevant to the Christian today as it was to those who first heard it. Just like the Israelites I and every other Christian has a sad propensity to forget God. Too often we take the credit for the good gifts God has given us in his grace as though they had come from our ability and our hand. Too often we forget that everything we enjoy in life is a gift from a loving Father. Everything the Christian enjoys is because God has given it from his treasury of loving kindness towards his children. The Christian does not deserve it by some good merit and he is not the one who gets it by his own efforts and abilities because they can fail, no, the Christian receives day after day that which he does not deserve. 

It is good to acknowledge that when we get that job we applied for, or when we do well at assignments and exams we studied for, or when we have a roof over our heads when many in the world live in refugee camps, or food in our stomachs when most of the world is starving, or good health when most of world has no hospitals and health care, or money in our bank accounts when most of the world lives in dire poverty, or a bed to sleep in when many in third world countries sleep 10 or 12 people to a room, or cars to drive when most of the world can barely survive nether lone even contemplate buying a car, or when we have clothes to wear when those abroad simply cannot afford the luxuries we afford, or when we enjoy the company of friends when so many in our own society feel alone and rejected, or we wake up and are able to enjoy another day in God's creation which we all too often take for granted, that all of it God gives to us in his love and in his grace. As James wrote,

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." (James 1:17)

We as Christians are so blessed in so many ways. We should be the most thankful people on the face of the earth. And we should never forget or tire of giving praise to our kind Father from whom we enjoy everything good that exists in our lives.