By: Bryan Crotts
It is tempting to be at ease because our surroundings seem stable and peaceful. We may be content with present shifts in politics. Our personal successes may have added up and our finances are in good order. You may have good reason to echo King David’s words: “The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant
places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.” (Psalm 16)
It is tempting to be at ease when all is well. There are good reasons to enjoy God’s provision and graces (Ecclesiastes 2, 5 & 9). In fact, when we do not enjoy God’s blessings with joy and thankfulness, we are sinning (Romans 1-2). We should take care to remember in humility that God has graciously given us all things (James 1 & Acts 17). Our mind and heart should also be ready to give thanks when God removes our blessings and we experience hardship (Job 1:21 & 2:10). This life remains under the curses (Genesis 3) and groanings (Romans 8) of a sin-draped world. In some cases, our Heavenly Father uses our hardships to get our attention. C.S. Lewis so well stated, “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks
in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” We are looking for a better and lasting city (Hebrews 11) where all sin, sorrow, sickness, and strife is no more. Of the new heavens and new earth, it is proclaimed, “No longer will there be anything accursed!” (Revelation 22).
It is tempting in stretches of prosperity to give ourselves a big pat on the back and say, “Boy, look at me!” When Israel prepared to march towards, take possession of, and settle in the Promised Land, God gave them a strong word from Deuteronomy 8:11-17: “Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’”
It is tempting for us to let this warning slip by. After all, it was for the people of the Old Testament. Paul says otherwise (Romans 15 & 1 Corinthians 10). Israel did lift up their hearts and forget God (Judges 10) and we are prone to wander also. The writer of Hebrews warns Christians to pay attention and not drift away from our God. We must keep the faith at all times.