February 12
Deuteronomy 8.10-18
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
When we listen to the stories from parents and grandparents of what life was like in the past, we hear of struggles. Some of us here about the struggles of living through a war and immigration to a new country. Moving with little to nothing to start a new life. Seeing God provide throughout life as the theme of life. Others speak of living through poverty, whether the depression, or just the way life as a married couple started. Seeing the ways that God provided, even as we had less than what we thought it would take each month, or week.
Coming through such things, as Israel did in the Exodus, with little expectation of getting anywhere, leads to greater gratitude when we see what God has done. I find it was easier to see God at work in life when we struggled. Now that we have enough, and a bit more, it can be easy to fall into that trap that Moses warned the people about: You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” As we often say it today: “I worked hard for the things I have.” And we don’t deny that people have worked hard. But so have those with much less. And regardless of our work, God provides.
That life of gratitude in giving has been one of those things that have tied us back to this understanding. God is the provider. I am not supplying God (or the church) with what he needs. God has provided me with what I need. I am simply putting it back into places where he has called me to distribute the abundance he has given as a blessing. Like Abraham, we are blessed so that we can be a blessing to others.
We begin with gratitude for all that we have. We see that all we have is a gift of God. We may have worked hard, yet it is all God’s gift to us. We honour him with our gifts to him and others that show that all we have, and all we are, is his. Because giving out of gratitude will help us to always see that God is the source of all that is good in life. Let’s thank God for his blessings in prayers and in all that we do with the blessings he gives us.
Song – Not What My Hands Have Done
Prayer
Loving God, you take care of all our needs and love us more than we can imagine. You have given us everything, and we always need you. Thank you for never leaving us. Thank you for guiding us as we worship you and for speaking to us through Jesus, our Lord. Amen.