The Danger of Forgetting God
ICS Daily Devotions
Deuteronomy 8:13-17 (NKJV) and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end—then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.
We should be the same person before God and men, whether we are having a blessed time or facing a crisis. Both circumstances reveal who we are as a person, and both can lead us to abandon our faith if we lack a proper grounding in the Word. Some people will leave God when a crisis hits because they are angry with God, and others will leave and forget about God when they are materially blessed.
The heart of man is deceitful. We can all be very forgetful, especially when we are doing well. We can choose either to continue with God or to forget about Him in good times, but the tendency to forget about Him is very high due to our pride and self-centredness. Similarly, after we have drawn closer to God in a crisis, there is a sense of relief when it ends. Despite thanking God for the resolution, we can also quickly forget His faithfulness and goodness, becoming complacent, stopping our times of devotion, journaling, and prayer, and taking God for granted. That’s why only our ongoing faithfulness pleases God.
Pride can be subtle. It could be a blind spot in our lives, or we might openly express our pride through our speech, actions, mannerisms, and attitudes towards others. We might slip into believing that all the wealth we have accumulated is due to our business acumen, a good eye for investments, hard work, and networking. We will then prioritise other things over worshipping God and slowly think that we are gods—the creators of our wealth.
This is the most dangerous place to be. We must remember that it is He who grants us the capacity—our physical strength, mental ability, skills, favourable circumstances, resources such as fertile land, opportunities, and success in our endeavours in trade and business—necessary to produce and accumulate our wealth. But when we forget God, we risk turning to our own strength, losing sight of His promises, and missing the very blessings He desires to establish in our lives.
Because of the pride of the people of Israel, God had to allow them to wander in the wilderness for forty years, causing them to be dependent on Him for manna daily. What pleases God is our faith in Him. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, God has shown us that He wants us to be utterly dependent on Him through faith in Him, as revealed through His Word.
Sermon Series: Stay Humble in His Presence
