What a Great God we have! Amen?!
So why do we so often forget this truth, or at least live our lives as though we have forgotten?
We don’t stop and think of what our lives would be like without the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. We get wrapped up in our workaday worlds and we never, or rarely, stop to thank God for a new day. How often do you wake up and while still laying in bed, thank God that you were able to awake and turn off your alarm. That may sound silly, but think of the alternative! I do thank God when I first wake up, but not every day. I need to purpose in my heart to begin my day, before I get out of bed, for that new day.
I know when I find myself in a state of ingratitude that I can turn to the Scriptures for a righteous reminder. Look at this song of Moses:
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“Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as raindrops on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass. For I proclaim the name of the Lord: ascribe greatness to our God. He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He. They have corrupted themselves; they are not His children, because of their blemish: a perverse and crooked generation. Do you thus deal with the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you? Has He not made you and established you?†(Deuteronomy 32:1-6)
We are that perverse and crooked generation because we have corrupted ourselves with the things of this world, making us a foolish and unwise people. Why? Because look at all the Father has done for us; He has paid the ultimate price to reconcile our lives back to Him through His precious Son Jesus. We deny our Creator and adore the creation.
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“‘But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it. You took some of your garments and adorned multicolored high places for yourself, and played the harlot on them. Such things should not happen, nor be. You have also taken your beautiful jewelry from My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images and played the harlot with them. You took your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set My oil and My incense before them. Also My food which I gave you—the pastry of fine flour, oil, and honey which I fed you—you set it before them as sweet incense; and so it was,’ says the Lord God.†(Ezekiel 16:15-19)
If we are not careful the blessings we receive from God can be turned into idols to the point that we indulge ourselves so much we forget the source of those blessings. Thankfully as we read Scripture we see that throughout history whenever God’s people return to Him through the road of redemption, He was faithful and loving to forgive those transgressions and restore them to a right relationship. That is my prayer for my life, my family, my church, my community, and eventually my country. I’ve shared this with you before, and I borrow this from my buddy Gregg Jackson, our nation’s woes are not economical or political; they are spiritual.
Commenting on the charge against Israel in Moses’ song in our passage from Deuteronomy, Matthew Henry writes:
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“A high charge is exhibited against Israel. Even God’s children have their spots, while in this imperfect state; for if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. But the sin of Israel was not habitual, notorious, unrepented sin; which is a certain mark of the children of Satan. They were fools to forsake their mercies for lying vanities. All willful sinners, especially sinners in Israel, are unwise and ungrateful.â€
It is a dangerous thing to embrace habitual, notorious, and unrepented sin. Am I so unwise and ungrateful that I would forsake the mercies of God for my lying vanities? Lord forbid it!
If I allow such behavior between me and my Lord, what could possibly come next?
I’ll start being unwise and ungrateful to those around me, especially those people God has put in my life as a blessing.
More on that tomorrow…
In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4
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Copyright © 2012 David Jeffers
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Aletheia, Apologetics, Bible, Christianity, Corruption, Culture, Evangelism, Faith, Forgiveness, Grace, Honesty, Joy, Mercy, Morality, praise, Prayer, Revival, Sin, Truth, Wisdom, worship