Saturday, August 22, 2026

When abundance tempts us to forget the Provider

You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless Yahweh your God for the good land which he has given you. Beware lest you forget Yahweh your God, in not keeping his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I command you today; lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built fine houses and lived in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; then your heart might be lifted up, and you forget Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with venomous snakes and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water; who poured water for you out of the rock of flint; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers didn’t know, that he might humble you, and that he might prove you, to do you good at your latter end; and lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth.” But you shall remember Yahweh your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as it is today.
Deuteronomy 8:10–18

The fullness is not the sin; the forgetting is. After the meal, after the mortgage is paid, after the portfolio grows, a quiet amnesia settles in. The hand that reached for the bread forgets the hand that provided it. The heart that was once desperate in the wilderness now stands tall, and the tallness feels like earned altitude.

Moses tells us to beware exactly at the moment of plenty. He points to the fine houses, the multiplied herds, the silver and gold. He does not say to despise them. He says to remember the rock of flint that poured water, the manna that fell without your labor. The wilderness was terrible, but it was also the place where you knew you could not save yourself. The table is the place where you are tempted to think you can.

So the Father calls you to a different kind of memory. Not a scolding, but an invitation. Jesus says, 'I am the vine, you are the branches'—apart from me you can do nothing. The power to get wealth is a gift, not a conquest. The covenant he swore to Abraham is the reason you have breath and bread. The cross is the ultimate sign that you are not self-made; you are bought. The Spirit comes alongside to remind you, to bring to mind every good gift that comes down from the Father of lights.

The power to get wealth is a gift, not a conquest.
Prayer

Lord, I have eaten and been full. Forgive my forgetting. Teach me to bless you with every bite, to remember that the rock that split for me is your own side. Amen.