When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.
Deuteronomy 8:10
How often do we give praise to the Lord for the good things He brings upon us? More often than not, we praise Him for a time, then we fall into complacency. Be honest with yourself, how often do you come to the altar or come up for prayer because things are going well? Have you ever come forward simply to give thanks for every good thing that He’s given you? Have you ever walked forward for prayer simply because you serve an awesome and powerful God who loves you?
Hard times are necessary for many reasons: testing and refinement of our character, lessons in humility, and most of all because it’s during those times that we seek Him the most. That’s His great desire, that we would seek Him first, but it’s through the difficulties that we do this the most. Give someone comfort and abundance and they will offer a modest prayer of thanks, but give them hardship, and they will pray and seek God with weeping and fervency.
I’m not saying it’s wrong to come to the Lord in our needs, we serve a powerful and merciful God who loves and cares about His people, but that shouldn’t be the only time we come to Him. The Israelites were sternly warned not to forget the Lord when He poured out His tremendous blessings upon them, because that’s our tendency. Far too many seek God for what He offers, rather than who He is and what He’s already done. They want His gifts, not His presence. They want comfort rather than growth, they want to their way and not His. Shouldn’t we seek Him all the more when times are good? We deserve nothing, and the more we understand that the more grateful we will be for everything that we have.
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;
Deuteronomy 8:14
