"It's a blessing...and a curse," as Adrian Monk used to say on Monk. Something similar could be said of God's warning about blessings in Deuteronomy 8 - that they could actually become a curse for the people!
After God lists all the riches that will flow to the people for their faithful obedience of His commands, He turns to pointing out that the blessings also have the potential to be their downfall. The risk is that they would turn to exalting themselves and forgetting the Lord their God (vs. 14). The Lord warns, "Do not say to yourself, 'My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth'" (vs. 17).
Sometimes I have heard this spiritually sick condition referred to as Affluenza. Affluenza is the idea that we lose our sense of dependence and reliance upon God when we achieve material success and begin trusting in other things - perhaps our money, our wealth, ourselves. Affluence can be spiritually hazardous. Some have suggested that the American Church is infected with this disease.
When we attempt to find our security in anything outside of the Lord, we are not only bound to be disappointed, we are setting ourselves up for a crushing spiritual defeat. This chapter ends with a warning: "If you do forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God" (vs. 19-20).
In what do you place your trust?
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