Remember God in Everyday Life
5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
10 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, 11 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, 12 be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Our love for God is rooted in and a response to his love for us (1 John 4:19). Our love for him isn’t just being fond of him, it’s a deep, all encompassing love. It’s an all-consuming love, purifying other passions.
The Israelites heard these words as they were getting ready to leave the wilderness and enter the promised land. God’s faithfulness in the wilderness will not end. The same God, full of love for his people, will provide them many good things. In the wilderness they ate manna and quail that God provided. In the Promised Land God will give them all kinds of things they themselves did not provide, cities, houses, wells, vineyards, olive groves! They will not have to build or plant these things and wait for them to yield fruit. In the promised land, God’s provision and abundant love will look differently than it has in the desert. God calls them to remember him and what he has done for them.
We remember God in our everyday life by loving him, keeping his words before us, and teaching them to others. We can’t afford to lose sight of how God showed himself faithful in the wilderness of our lives. Some lessons can only be learned in hard places. Some muscles can only be developed in God’s training camp of the wilderness.
- Recall a time when you were dependent on God to provide for you in the middle of a hard place. When life got comfortable was it easy to “coast” spiritually?
- What ways might God be calling you to love him with your whole heart once again.
PRAYER
Father God, thank you for your sweet mercies in the hard times. Thank you for your sweet mercies in the good times, too. I give you thanks no matter the circumstances. Amen.
