Do not forget the Lord your God...

One of the things I often do when I’m in a crisis is go into my bedroom, avoid speaking to anyone in the house, open my Bible, and pray for help. As I was reading Numbers 28 and 29, something else dawned on me. Do I pray to God only when I’m in a crisis? Please don’t get me wrong — I do read my Bible every morning and say a prayer thanking God for everything He does in my life and for my family, but there isn’t always a specific interaction. Sometimes it feels more like a ritual. My children can almost guess what I’m going to pray each day.

Why am I going down this line of thinking? If you read Numbers 28 and 29, you’ll see that Joshua is getting ready to lead the children of Israel. But before they enter the Promised Land, God calls Moses to explain His offerings. In this, He lays out how our

mornings,

evenings,

weeks,

months,

festivals,

history,

and future

are all to be shaped around worship and what is expected of us. And my question through all of this is — why?

Here’s what spoke to me. If you read back through the book of Numbers, disobedience didn’t come all at once. It happened slowly. It started with complaints about food and water, then unbelief with the spies, Korah’s rebellion, and finally the incident at Baal Peor. Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, God doesn’t fade away from our lives in a day either — it happens gradually. Looking back, I can see how this has happened in my own life. Often, when we sit down to pray in the morning, we look at the clock and say, “Oh, it’s time for school,” or “We need to run.” We rush a quick prayer, skip reading, or maybe read just one verse and move on.

This, my friend, is often the starting point of slowly drifting away from God. No one plans to become rebellious, but the slow erosion of aligning our daily lives with God becomes the seed for something bigger. If you understand this and then read Numbers 28 and 29, you’ll see that God is teaching them a rhythm so they don’t forget Him in the busyness of life.

Daily rhythm keeps the relationship alive — like checking in with your parents each day.

Weekly rhythm, by ceasing from work, teaches us to trust Him.

Monthly rhythm reminds us to pause and reflect.

Festivals and history retell where we come from.

And future promises remind us of what God will do when we live this way.

One picture from my mentor’s house always stays with me. It’s a small photo frame with a white cloth background embroidered with the words, “Do not forget the Lord your God.” Though it’s small, the message speaks loudly. In all the busyness and mundaneness of life, we must not forget the Lord our God.

As I reflect on this, I urge you to pause for a moment and think about where you were and where you are now and thank God becuase victory is not sustained by stregnth but by devotion . Don’t get caught in the daily cycle of defeat and slowly drift away from Him. Instead, stop, remember what He has done, and reflect on it. Build a practice of setting aside specific time to speak with Him and most importantly, don’t just talk, pause long enough to listen to what He is saying to you as well.