Sept 20 - Jeremiah 18:14-15

Do the gushing waters dry up
that flow fresh down the mountains;

Yet my people have forgotten me:

they offer incense in vain.

Jeremiah 18:14-15

What do you take for granted?

Bread always being on the grocery store shelves? The simple ability to walk to the mailbox? The freedom to worship? How about the love of your mom?

These things are always there. Steady. Constant. Dependable. Therefore, we take them for granted ... until a snowstorm comes and there's a run on bread ... until our knee gives out and it's nearly impossible to walk ... until mom succumbs to cancer and we're left with a massive whole in our heart. 

The prophet today talks about things people in Israel took for granted: streams of water. In a desert culture, it seemed to too many in Israel that they never really had to worry -- the gushing waters [would always] flow fresh down the mountains[, right]?" 

We can always credit nature for -- the beginning of verse 14 -- "the snow ... from the mountaintops of Lebanon" whose melt and run-off will always provide for us, right? Nature is dependable, isn't it? It will never "14 desert" or disappoint us, right?

And what? ... did you hear it? ... in those statements, we are taking God for granted! Ultimately it is he that provides the "mountains" and the "snow" and the "gushing waters." Bread doesn't come from grocery stores or bakers, it comes from the sun and rain and soil that God ultimately provides. Our ability to walk to the mailbox comes from our life that God provides. Love isn't a human invention; it comes from God who is love. And the love of a loving mother is ultimately a beautiful reflection of our heavenly parent. 

Do you see it? 

1. God provides. 

2. We continually take it for granted. 

And sadly, when we do, the final sentence in today's verse begins to come true. God -- through the prophet -- laments, "my people have forgotten me." 

When we take things for granted and forget the unseen hand behind every good gift, it's a subtle -- but gradually growing -- form of forsaking God. Take a moment today to look for God behind every blessing. 

In Christ's Love,

a guy who takes for

granted the smart phone

on which he writes

these devotions.

Yet I become dependent

on stuff. But didn’t people

worship -- generally

more freely -- without

so much stuff? Hmm.