LORD, help us remember...

Deuteronomy 8:1-10 “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. "Remember" is a big word in this book, and in the whole of God's Word. He knows us so well; we are prone to forget. Especially the good things - we tend to take them for granted. And if we forget God's many blessings, we will also forget His reminders. Another thing about us is that we often resent being reminded; we do not like the loving discipline God gives us. We would rather forget His rules; we would rather forget Him. In our pride we want to feel like self-made, self-sufficient, all-knowing people. We are not. May we remember today: His blessings, His laws, Him.