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SCRIPTURE - DEUTERONOMY 8.10-20

10When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. 11Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
19If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. 20Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.

OBSERVATION

The temptation of the full stomach is to invent a new story of how it became full!!

It's easy to want to re-write history and tell a different story of how things have come to be, making the story more acceptable for ourselves or others. For Israel, the temptation God warned them about was that they would begin believing that it was their own wisdom / ingenuity / ability that brought them into the good land with it's wealth and abundance. That it was in their own power that they somehow moved out of the land of slavery and into a land of good things.

And guess what - This is exactly the trap they fell into - so much so that they even began worshiping other gods instead of the Lord who had brought them there. Their full stomachs made them forget that it was God who provided for them in the desert and brought them to this land where he would continue to provide for them in abundance.

APPLICATION

Placing our confidence in the blessings we have received instead of the giver of the blessings is not a problem that was exclusive to Israel. It is a challenge we face in our lives as well (perhaps even more so because of the relative wealth we have here in Canada). It can be very easy for us to come up with a story of hard work and personal success that has led us to have all that we do, when really this has been the provision of God.

At the end of February, we had our AGM, and were able to celebrate the good things God has done - particularly in reference to our finances as we've seen money come in for the building project, missions teams being sent, general budget being made, Global Advance Fund staying solid, and now 3 months reserve being achieved. That's a great place to be especially in comparison to where we were a few years ago. And yet, now that we have come to that place, it isn't a time to remain complacent, but rather to press more into the Lord our God - to learn greater trust and to remain obedient to him in the everyday things he calls us to, not relying on the good things he has provided for security, but continuing to press forward into what he would have for us. God would not have us trust in what he has provided, but rather trust in him who provided it!

May this be true of us as a church and as individuals - that we wouldn't rely on the things we have for security, but would trust instead in our God who loves us and has provided us all we need!

PRAYER

Lord, as your church, may we continue to press forward in you - not just resting on past successes or good things, but rather living in obedient surrender to your current call to us as individuals and as a church family.