SCRIPTURE
"When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant-then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery" (Deuteronomy 6:10)
OBSERVATION
God would not warn us of this tendency if it were not a real possibility to forget God when we are blessed. It seems as if the only time the people of Israel sought the Lord was when they were in dire straits… when they were famished or impoverished. The tendency is not only for the Israelites. It is for us as well.
Often our greatest test in life is not poverty. It is prosperity. That is when we get bored and we lose our focus, our edge of obedience and our deep love for Christ. E. Kefa Sempangi wrote in his book some years ago the chilling words of Idi Amin’s massacres in Uganda. He left Africa and immigrated to the USA and attended bible College. He then writes: "I noticed something changing in me. Now with the threat of war far behind us, I found that the Word of God had lost its power. I now studied it to look for inconsistencies and parse its sentences for grammatical divisions. In Uganda, we look to it for life and sustenance for we did not know if we would be alive the following week. Something of the urgency was lost and the Bible no longer held strength for life. It only held knowledge for tests."
APPLICATION
God promises to bless us, but when He does, will I steward it well? Many people never survive success. But I must. If I am going to use His blessings for the good of many, I must give away as much as I can to help other people come to Christ and so that they become great leaders. I must not think that success is something to be gained, It is something to be used for His glory and for the Kingdom’s advance.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, thank you for our great church family of New Hope. You have given us so much, and now it is time to use it to reach others with the Gospel and to train young emerging leaders with the Good News. Please help me to take whatever success you have entrusted to us and now use it to bless you and to equip people.
