11 The Lord replied, “When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, 12 the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you and you cried to me for help, did I not save you from their hands? 13 But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. 14 Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!”
15 But the Israelites said to the Lord, “We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” 16 Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.
In these verses we can see how difficult it can be to stay close to God. The Israelites always seemed to forget God when things were going well. Even though his people would go through these cycles of forgetting and remembering, God never failed to rescue them. We have a tendency to act just like the Israelites. When things are good and all seems right with the world, we may tend to forget to be with God daily. God feels rejection when we do this. Have you had one of your children rebel or reject you as a parent? God feels the same when we rebel and reject him. Make sure you stay close to God in the good times and the bad times.
