Remembering the promise

Moses called all the people together and said:

Take care to obey
everything I tell you today,
so you can live and multiply then
go in and gain the land the LORD swore
to give your ancestors.

Remember how God led you
through desolate places
for forty years?

He did this to humble and test you
to see what your heart held
and whether you could keep
His commandments.

God humbled you with hunger
then fed you with manna –
a food neither you
nor your ancestors had,
so this you would know:

You do not live by bread alone
but by every word that comes
from the mouth of God.

For forty years your clothes
did not wear out nor your feet swell,
so you would know well
that the LORD your God
disciplines you as a parent
disciplines a beloved child.

And now, you must keep the commandments
of the LORD your God,
walking in the ways He lays out for you – even
dreading to do anything else!

For the LORD your God
is bringing you into a good land –
a land of fresh water springing forth from hills and valleys,
a land of wheat and barley,
a land of grapevines and fig trees and pomegranates,
a land pouring out fine olive oil and pure honey,
a land with no lack of food, nor lack of anything,
a land with iron as common as stones
and hills where you can dig copper.

And when you have all that you want
of the good that God gives,
remember this word from the LORD:
Remember to bless your God.

©2013, Mary Harwell Sayler, prayer-a-phrase of Deuteronomy 8:1-10 from today’s Daily Bible Reading

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