{"id":4532,"date":"2018-04-20T17:29:25","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T23:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=4532"},"modified":"2018-04-20T17:29:25","modified_gmt":"2018-04-20T23:29:25","slug":"the-test-of-prosperity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=4532","title":{"rendered":"The Test of Prosperity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I had a brief visit with my orthopedic\u00a0doctor today about a cortisone shot in my left hip. He believes much of the pain I am experiencing is coming from my hip. He will have me get a shot to test his theory before proceeding with other types of treatment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY.<\/strong>&#8230;<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><em>&#8220;<span id=\"en-NLT-5124\" class=\"text Deut-8-10\">When you have eaten your fill, be sure to praise the <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span> your God for the good land he has given you.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span id=\"en-NLT-5125\" class=\"text Deut-8-11\"><em>\u201cBut that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span> your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today.&#8221;<\/em> Deuteronomy 8:10,11 NLT<\/span><\/p>\n<p>For forty years the Children of Israel traveled around the wilderness feasting on manna. It was a test. It was a reminder that they needed to look to the Lord for their, <em>&#8220;daily bread.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Now, they were going to enter the promised land. They would feast on the bounty of a land\u00a0<em>&#8220;flowing with milk and honey.&#8221;\u00a0<\/em>Moses described it as a place,\u00a0\u00a0<em>&#8220;&#8230;where food is plentiful and nothing is lacking.&#8221;<\/em> (Deuteronomy\u00a08:9 NLT) Now they would face a new test. It is one thing to trust the Lord to provide when you don&#8217;t have a pantry full of food, it is another to keep the Lord in focus when food is plentiful and your source of provision can be quickly forgotten.<\/p>\n<p>Moses cautions this new generation about forgetting the Lord and forgetting what He had done for Israel. It seems that it is far too easy to &#8220;forget&#8221; about the Lord when daily existence is not &#8220;up for grabs.&#8221; When the Lord is not continually in the forefront of our thoughts, we can easily forget His faithful provision.<\/p>\n<p>When the Lord is not in the center of our lives, self becomes the center of our lives. So Moses warns, <em>&#8220;<\/em><span id=\"en-NLT-5128\" class=\"text Deut-8-14\"><em>Do not become <strong>proud<\/strong> at that time and forget the <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span> your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt.&#8221;<\/em> (Deuteronomy 8:14 NLT)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The sexual sin of Sodom was from underlying issues of self-sufficiency and a godless existence.\u00a0<em>&#8220;She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me.&#8221;<\/em> (Ezekiel 16:48-50)\u00a0Too much bread, too much idle time, pride and self-centered living.<\/p>\n<p>The need for the balance of life is seen in the words of Proverbs, <em>&#8220;O God&#8230;give me neither poverty nor riches!\u00a0Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.\u00a0For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, \u201cWho is the L<span class=\"smallcaps\">ORD<\/span>?\u201d\u00a0And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God\u2019s holy name.&#8221;<\/em> (Proverbs 30:7-9 NLT)<\/p>\n<p>Through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our life, we can have the &#8220;daily walk&#8221; with the Lord that is not determined by what we have or what we don&#8217;t, whether we are <em>&#8220;well fed or in want.&#8221;\u00a0<\/em>Like Paul, we can <em>&#8220;do all things [face all cirsumstance] through Christ who gives us strength.&#8221;<\/em> (Philippians 4:13)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had a brief visit with my orthopedic\u00a0doctor today about a cortisone shot in my left hip. He believes much of the pain I am experiencing is coming from my hip. He will have me get a shot to test his theory before proceeding with other types of treatment. BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY.&#8230;\u00a0&#8220;When you have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4533,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532\/revisions\/4533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}