If we are not careful, we can allow the abundance of the Lord’s provision to so fill us that we can begin losing focus of Him in our lives. It is easy for us to begin focusing on the blessings that we forget about God and our hunger and desire for Him begins to wane.
We always need to be mindful of the source of our blessing – God. It is unfortunate that the human heart can stray and begin focusing on the pleasure found in this world. We must always remind ourselves that anything that we possess only comes by God’s provision.
According to Scripture, we must focus on God’s word to keep our hearts tender and grateful to God, to remind us of the true source. If we fail to do this, we are prone to become proud and forget God, becoming self-sufficient thinking that it is merely our hard work that got us where we are at. The Lord warned Israel of this danger in Deuteronomy. (Deuteronomy 8:11-18)
Dan Phillips posted this sobering quote by John Piper.
“The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. For all the ill that Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife (Luke 14:18–20). The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable.”
(John Piper, A Hunger for God [Wheaton: Crossway, 1997], 14; from D. A. Carson, For the Love of God : A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God's Word. Volume 1 [Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1998], May 28 entry)
We must be diligent to guard our hearts, since it is easy for us to become subtly deceived.
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