How Success Makes You Forget God | Hosea 13:4-6

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Our text today is Hosea 13:4-6

But I am the Lord your God
    from the land of Egypt;
you know no God but me,
    and besides me there is no savior.
It was I who knew you in the wilderness,
    in the land of drought;
but when they had grazed, they became full,
    they were filled, and their heart was lifted up;
    therefore they forgot me.— Hosea 13:4-6

Most people think success will strengthen their faith. But sometimes success does the exact opposite.

Israel loved God in the wilderness. When life was uncertain, when they were desperate, when they needed daily provision, they leaned on Him constantly. They depended. They knew they could not survive without Him.

But then life improved. They became “full.” And strangely, "fullness" became more spiritually dangerous than emptiness.

“...their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me.”

This is one of the saddest lines in Hosea. The very blessings God provided slowly convinced them they no longer needed Him.

This same cycle happens all the time.

People cry out to God during sickness, heartbreak, uncertainty, financial pressure, addiction, loneliness, or desperation. But once life stabilizes, once the career grows, once the money comes, once the family settles down, once comfort increases, prayer slowly fades and dependence quietly weakens.

That is why prosperity can become spiritually dangerous. Comfort has a way of numbing urgency. We stop seeking God desperately because life starts functioning smoothly enough without obvious desperation.

And eventually, people begin trusting systems, routines, income, investments, productivity, influence, and self-sufficiency more than God Himself. This kind of forgetting rarely feels rebellious. But underneath it all, the heart slowly drifts from dependence to self-reliance.

Some of the most spiritually "alive" people are often those who remember what it felt like to need God desperately. They never fully lose the wilderness. And that is the invitation hidden inside this warning today.

Don't let suffering alone remind you that you need God. Remember Him now. While life is good. While business is growing. While your family is stable. While your body is healthy. While provision is flowing.

Every good thing you have was meant to deepen your gratitude and dependence—not replace it. So return and revere the God who gives all good things in times of suffering and in times of success.

DO THIS:

Spend time today thanking God specifically for the blessings you may have started taking for granted.

ASK THIS:

1. Has comfort slowly reduced my dependence on God?
2. Do I seek God as desperately in success as I did in struggle?
3. What blessings have I started treating as self-produced instead of God-given?

PRAY THIS:

Father, protect me from the kind of success that slowly makes me forget you. Keep my heart humble, grateful, dependent, and fully aware that every good thing comes from your hand. Amen.

PLAY THIS:

"Gratitude"