How Easy It Is To Forget God’s Love.

As you read through the Old Testament, you are struck by the fact that the Israelites abandoned God time and time again, even though they knew His Promises and His faithfulness in forgiveness. In the Book of Exodus, after God freed His people from enslavement by the Egyptians, when they had traversed the parted waters of the Red Sea, which took them to freedom from the pursuing Egyptian army, they enjoyed a short time of thankfulness and faithfulness. However, that mindset and their faithfulness faded rather quickly as they became impatient waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain, as he was receiving what we know as the Ten Commandments Tablets from God. Their impatience manifested itself in demands on Aaron (Moses’ brother) to make them ‘gods to worship’. Chapter 32, verse 1 of Exodus recounts this act: ‘Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ Aaron’s weakness complied. How easy it was for them to fall away. As we read the numerous accounts of their abandoning God, we think, how can this happen again and again? Don’t they realize what God has done for them over and over?

However, we also see this in our own day. We see what we thought were faithful Christians sidetracked by various teachings outside of the Truth of the Bible. We become softened in our resolve for Christ by various films, TV, and music. Social media is spiritual quicksand that seems ok at first, but slowly entangles and envelops its followers in obsessive behavior. The subtleties of the devil are all it takes for someone to start putting more time into things that take us away from the truth of God and His calling in our lives. It is slight degrees of movement that go unnoticed. Take, for example, sailing; if you are off by just one tiny degree for 100 feet, it goes unnoticed. But, after just one hundred miles, you become 1.67 nautical miles off course. Sometimes Christians, and by that I mean true followers of Christ, become complacent in their Bible studying, fellowship with other Christians, or sharing the Word of God with others. Left unchecked, this can become very serious. We start to think well I have God, so know I can relax spiritually a little. It is this exact mindset that the devil exploits, which causes you to become an ineffective servant of God. 

All of these distractions, in and of themselves, may not be destructive, but as Christians, who place God before ALL things, we must keep in check the amount of time and the mindset spent on activities that pull us away from our real calling. When you lead a disciplined life in response to God’s calling, you may enjoy various freedoms that God has created for you to enjoy. But when anything starts to replace your desire and calling to God’s Word, then you must put it into question and see if it really is advantageous spiritually to continue on that path, which may ultimately lead you away from God, just as the Israelites fell away from God again and again. 

If you are in this predicament, you should ask God to reveal to you the truth of the path you are currently on. Pray sincerely, read God’s Word, and study it daily. Fill your mind with godly things, and the ungodly things will vanish into their real identity, which is worthlessness. Read through the Old Testament, and you will easily recognize the waywardness of the Israelites, and this will help you recognize the wanderings of your spiritual life.  Then talk to others whom you have noticed are struggling in this area. God will give you strength!