Forget-Me-Not

"When they had pasture, they became satisfied; when they were satisfied, their hearts became proud, and as a result they forgot Me."

~ Hosea 13:6

If we see how easily we are prone to drift from our Lord during the gentle tides of ease and comfort, we will learn to bless Him when He thrashes us with the waves of affliction and lands us back on His restful shore. The Lord's good gifts ought to make us cling to Him with sweetest affection, and instead our sinful inclination is to place these gifts on an altar and worship them. King Agur rightly observed "give me neither poverty nor riches...lest I be full and deny you and say, Who is the Lord?" (Proverbs 30:8-9)

It is therefore for this reason that our Lord in love allows pain and suffering; Not only to refine us but more importantly to find all our joy in Him! He knows that we foolish sheep will graze as far as there is pasture, ignorant of our wandering far from our Shepherd, until He permits us to find ourselves in a stormy valley, and then we cling to Him tightly. The bride in the Song of Solomon expected to find her Beloved in the ease of her room, but it was only until she stepped out at night, searched all the streets and inquired with the guards that she found Him. Then with great relief and joy she declared, "I have found Him whom my soul loves, I held Him and would not let Him go".

At the same time, let us not think that wealth and comfort are sinful in and of themselves, but let us rather remember that when God blesses us, it is to supply us with fuel to serve His kingdom all the more. So when we should receive His good gifts, let us look beyond the gifts to the face of the Man of Galilee and be reminded that there is only one thing we desire: "that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple." (Psalm 27:4)

Christian, are you in a season of ease and comfort? Beware that you do not drift from the Fountainhead of all your joy. Are you in a storm of suffering? Follow at once the streams uphill (through His word and prayer), and do not stop till you have reached Christ, the Spring of all delights. Are you reading this and you do not personally know Christ as your Lord and Saviour? I urge you, do not waste your life looking for satisfaction in the created things instead of the Creator! Nothing will satisfy your soul except the Fairest of ten thousand!