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In Deuteronomy 31, it’s talking about Moses dying and Joshua taking over.  God tells Moses to take Joshua to the tent of meetings so He can talk to them.

In Deuteronomy 31:16 it states: “And the Lord said to Moses: “You are going to rest with your ancestors, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them. ¹⁷ And in that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and calamities will come on them, and in that day they will ask, ‘Have not these disasters come on us because our God is not with us?’ ¹⁸ And I will certainly hide my face in that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods.”

What gets me about this story is that God is about to go before the Israelites with Joshua, into the promise land.  God is going to defeat all their enemies and clear the land for them to take over and possess.  God clearly knows they are going to turn their back on Him, yet He goes forward with the plan.

I’m sure when He made the promise to Moses about giving them a land filled with milk and honey, He knew then they were going to forsake Him in the future.

Aha, but take note.

It says in vs. 16 that “Many disasters and calamities will come on them.”

So God knows they will be punished by disasters and calamities, and He will not come and help them because of what they did.

I think we need to wake up and realize that God will help us if we stay true to God.  Statics say that 20% of the church is the ones that pay their tithe, do all the volunteering, praying, etc.  Is your church protecting you from disasters, or are you the one protecting the 80%?

I think so many times we ride on other coattails to miss disasters and calamities in our life, when we should be the one stepping up and praying for others.  I wonder how many of those who post on social media, or ask others to pray for them, are actually praying for themselves?

If you’re not a praying person, do you target those you know who pray, and ask them to pray for you, when you should be lifting them up?

People who pray need our prayers.  They are battling spiritual warfare everyday for us, our community, our elected officials.  If you are too busy to pray, then you must be prostituting yourself to other gods.

I’m not trying to put a guilt trip on those that only pray so often.  Or the ones that get sick and don’t have the energy to pray.  I’m referring to the ones that rarely pray, and think that it will be ok because someone else will do it.

It is a very easy process to pray.  Just pick a time to sit in a chair in a room by yourself.

Start talking to God as if He is sitting in the other chair.  Tell Him what you have done wrong that day and ask for forgiveness.  Then start sharing your day as if you are talking to your spouse or a friend.  Throughout the conversation when your talking about someone in need, ask God to help.

If you cover your day with God, all the prayers you need to pray will come up.  Also, all the times you need to say thank you to God for what happened that day, will also come to the surface.

If you tell God you and your friends were talking about the storm coming, pray God’s will over that storm.

If you put this line of prayer into practice, you will be amazed at all the people and events you will pray over, in a short amount of time, just talking to God.

Karen Y. Stevens is executive director for Meals on Wheels