Whether it’s your phone, your keys, your wallet, or something else, we all forget things from time to time. One summer during college, I forgot about the syllabus for a summer internship. I panicked when just a few days before the end of the internship I remembered the syllabus and discovered to my dismay that there were requirements for the internship that I had not been meeting, plus there were two books to read and write book reviews on! Not a good feeling! Thankfully, the due dates were not until several weeks into the following semester, so in the end, it all worked out. Sometimes forgetting is humorous, other times it is an inconvenience, and sometimes it has unchangeable consequences. But is anything more tragic than forgetting the Lord?

Deuteronomy 8 reminds us of the terrible danger of forgetting the Lord. Moses warned the people of Israel, “Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not walking his commandments… lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up and you forget the LORD your God… Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God…” (Deut. 8:11-14, 17-18).

These verses teach us that we must not forget the Lord. We forget the Lord when we do not obey his commandments. And as Moses warns the people here, luxury and ease can predispose us to this kind of self-sufficiency and forgetfulness. We also forget the Lord whenever we take credit for the blessings we have, as if our own power or strength have earned those blessings for ourselves. Brothers and sisters, it is possible to forget the Lord even while continuing to go through the motions of Christianity, so take care lest you forget the Lord.

In order to not forget the Lord, we need to guard our heart. Moses makes it clear that forgetting the Lord is a heart issue. Twice here in these verses he mentions the heart. Forgetting the Lord may show up in your life as apathy or disobedience, but it stems from a prideful heart (“lifted up” vs. 14). So guard your heart, because it is the measure of who you are. Never ignore the ‘little’ indicators that your heart is spiritually unwell. You may know things about your heart that you think no one else knows, but God knows. Take steps to guard your spiritual “heart health” by eating spiritually “heart-healthy” foods, a.k.a. a balanced spiritual diet of the Word of God, prayer, and corporate and private worship, as well as other spiritual disciplines. In a word, invest in your personal spiritual life and in this way, guard your heart so that you do not forget the Lord.