Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 114 · April 24
When Thou Art Full
“Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:”
"Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day."
Read the next three verses to see how the forgetting happens, because it is not what most people brace for: "Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God." The forgetting comes after the harvest is in. Moses is warning a whole generation about the danger of things going well.
Then he puts a sentence in their mouths that nobody ever says out loud: "And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth." It is said in the heart. It is the private belief of a capable adult who has got up early for twenty years and can account for every hour.
Notice that the verse explains its own word before anyone can make it vague: "forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes." Forgetting shows up as habits that quietly stop. The prayer that used to happen stops happening. The promise made in a harder year slips away, and the day set apart for God gets swallowed by other things. You still remember that God is there; what has gone is the keeping.
The cure is a sentence to say back: "But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth." Even your ability to work was given to you.
So take the best thing in your year, the one you would name if somebody asked. Account for it on paper in two columns. In one, write the parts you built. In the other, write the parts that were simply there when you arrived: your health, the timing, the people who happened to be standing where they stood. Do it before your heart writes the other version, and then thank the God who filled both columns.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 114 is Great Things (Psalm 126:3).