Psalm 106:21-22
They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea.

It wasn’t on their own that the Israelites had escaped from Pharaoh’s grip.  It wasn’t their own ability that had allowed them to cross the Red Sea.  It wasn’t their own power that overcame that great enemy army that pursued after them.  They’d not sent the plagues by their own will or desire.  They’d not spoiled the Egyptians because of their own favor.  They would have been forced to remain in Egypt if they had to trust in what they could do.  Without God, no part of their deliverance would have been possible.

How quickly they forgot both God and all the things He had done.  Their response to His gracious and merciful intervention in their lives was to turn their backs on Him, to rebel against Him and to disobey His commandments to them.  Though God had His hand on every step they took and was leading and preparing things for them all along, they wandered away from Him and back into the bondage of sin.

How ungrateful we must seem when we treat God the same way.  He’s done so much for us, and we’re looking around for other things.  He is our great Savior, delivering us from sin and death, and then we take that for granted.  We rebel and disobey and turn aside.  Somehow we lose the wonder of the miraculous ways He’s intervened in our lives and turn our gaze upon the ordinary things of life.  We forget His great power and His great love and seek satisfaction and fulfillment in so many lesser things.  We neglect to remember where we’d still be if it hadn’t been for Jesus coming into our lives and making such a difference for us in the first place.

But it’s not too late to turn back.  If just now we’ve realized a way in which we’ve gone astray, let us truly repent of that and ask forgiveness from our gracious Lord.  Let us recommit ourselves to following Him and all of His ways and allow the sweet remembrance of the wondrous works He has done to pull our hearts ever closer to Him whenever we are tempted to drift away.  Let us, out of thankfulness for the great deliverance of our souls, pursue a life of obedience to our Savior.