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. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 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. -Deut. 8:11-14 NIV
It is so easy to let this happen, to let our prosperity lull us into thinking that it is something of our own doing. In the valleys of despair, we are very aware of our inability to do anything for ourselves. At those times we bare our souls and cry out for God's intervention. We recognize our total dependence on him as our source and we are not disappointed. He always carries us through.
However, once we are out of the valley, once we have conquered the mountain, we begin to think that we have done it all in our own power. As Moses says, when God's blessings become manifest in our lives, our hearts have a tendency to become proud and we forget that it was the Lord our God who brought us out of our despair and planted our feet on the high place. It is at those times when we think that we have triumphed that we face the most risk of falling.
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