“Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God. . . .”

— Deuteronomy 8:11

Moses was instructing the peo­ple on how to live. He mentioned bread, eating, being satisfied, and being fed. Clearly the theme of bread and eating was important for understanding God’s saving work in the people’s lives.

We need tangible experiences of grace, and God often reveals his goodness and abundant love through visible signs of flourishing: a land where his people would eat bread without scarcity (Deuteronomy 8:9) and where they would lack nothing. There would be water, olive oil, fruit, and much more in abundance.

But it can be surprisingly easy to overlook God’s generosity—and even to forget the tough times we have survived by God’s grace. Moses reminded the people that the hard times they went through were there to test them, shape them, and ultimately do them good. It’s also easy to congratulate ourselves when things start going well. Moses didn’t say that the people didn’t participate in their own flourishing, but he did remind them that God was the one who gave them the power to do well in the first place. And Moses warned his listeners: If you start living as if you did all these good things for yourself, you’ll forget the source of every good thing, and then you’ll see for sure that you don’t live on bread alone.

We all need God, so let’s remember him in everything—when things are hard and when things are going well.

Blessed be your name, O Lord. Help us to remember that we need you in all situations. Amen.