Psalm 78 (part 4)

"But He commanded the skies to open; He opened the doors of Heaven. He rained down manna for them to eat; He gave them bread from Heaven. They ate the food of angels! God gave them all they could hold. He released the east wind in the Heavens and guied the south wind by His mighty power. He rained down meat as thick as dust - birds as plentiful as the sand on the seashore! He caused the birds to fall within their camp and all around their tents. The people ate their fill. He gave them what they craved. But before they satisfied their craving, while the meat was yet in their mouths, the anger of God rose against them, and He killed their strongest men. He stuck down the finest of Israel's young men. But in spite of this, the people kept sinning. Despite His wonders, they refused to trust Him."
- Psalm 78:23-33

So, God gave them what they wanted. Meat. We've heard the saying, "Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it." This was the case here. The Israelites begged God for meat, and He gave it to them. The end, right? Not.

God gave the people the food of angels! And they ate their fill...but they kept sinning. God blesses us with things we don't deserve every day, and we overlook them and take them for granted. It's not only selfish, but also wrong! The people weren't thankful for the gifts...at least not thankful enough to stop them from habitual sin. Now, habitual sin is not something that a Christian should be doing. 1 John 3:10 says, "So now we can tell who are the children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God."

God isn't saying we don't belong to Him if we mess up after we've been saved. He's saying that we shouldn't abuse His forgiveness by sinning purposefully, knowing that He'll forgive us when we ask Him. We're to learn from our sin and turn completely away from it - that's repentance. Let me tell you a story...

"When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. then it says, 'I will return to the person I came from.' So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation." - Matthew 12:43-45

Did you know that lice prefers clean hair to dirty hair? That's because it can make its little house in your hair because dirt hasn't already taken up residence. Does that mean you don't wash your hair to prevent lice? No! It means you take care of your hair, washing it thoroughly every day.

The problem with the man from Matthew 12:43 wasn't that he emptied and swept up his spirit. It was that he didn't take any precaution for the next time. He didn't arm himself with the Word of God and he didn't take the time to ask God every day to wash him in His blood and remind him of Christ's sacrifice for him. (yes, I know that Jesus hadn't been crucified yet when Jesus told this parable.)

When we think of Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross before we sin, it turns our perspective around. We stop focusing on living for our own selfish desires and start living for Him...because He died for us, so shouldn't He get to dictate how we live?

To summarize:
1) People can tell if you're really God's child by how you act. And yes, people can tell when your Christian life is a facade. All just by how you act! So we need to remember Christ's sacrifice for us and think about how we can please HIM every day - not how we can convince other people we're living for Him...because when we truly desire to seek Him, other people will see that. (The same is true for wanting to make other people THINK you're serving Him...people can tell when the relationship you have with Christ is real.)

2) When you ask God for something, you need to be thankful! He could take it away just as easily as He gave it to you. Because He's God.