Day 56

By Grace Alone

Read: Deuteronomy 8-10

The Israelites had spent years in slavery and then 40 more years literally depending on God for their daily bread as they went through the wilderness. Soon, however, they would enter the Promised Land described elsewhere as a land “flowing with milk and honey.” They would suddenly experience prosperity and that would be dangerous to their spiritual life.

It was important therefore that Israel should constantly focus on the fact that they were saved by grace alone, and therefore humility was the only fitting attitude to have in response. So Moses reminds them of their former poverty. He warns them that the new prosperity carries with it the danger that they will forget that God alone is the source of all of their blessings. He points out that they were chosen to be God’s special people not because of their righteousness and power, but in spite of their stubbornness and weakness. Moses reminds them that they would have all been destroyed in the wilderness if it had not been for his intercessory prayers on their behalf.

The same is true of us: we are sinners saved by grace. The bottom line is not that we have chosen God but that he has chosen us in spite of our sins and failures. And our material prosperity is also a gift far beyond our deserving, though it likewise endangers our spiritual life.

PRAYER
Father, constantly remind us that since we are saved by grace alone, humility is the only fitting attitude for us to have in life. In Jesus’ name. Amen.