“Do not forget the good things the Lord has done for you...” The writer of Hebrews puts a great emphasis on remembering what God has done. He practically goes through the entire history of Israel, urging his readers to learn from the mistakes of those people and not emulate their hardness of heart. “History repeats itself” is an old maxim, and I think the primary reason for this is that we do forget...we don’t remember, and it causes us to repeat the mistakes of past generations. Or, even worse, our memories are so short we repeat our own mistakes. But even worse than repeating our mistakes is when we forget the goodness of God. Forgetting what God has done has a trickle-down effect. When other circumstances come along the way, and things are looking hard, we need to be able to look back and point to the places where God’s character was affirmed to us. Otherwise, we are prone to despair and to a sin God seems to take very seriously called unbelief.
Things might look out of control right now, but I know God is good. I can point to a dozen different moments when I saw His goodness in full display. I can remind myself of the miracles. Of watching water appear in an empty water bottle in the desert. Of watching a dead phone be resurrected when anointed with oil. Of watching physical healing take place before my very eyes on multiple occasions. Of the miracle of experiencing a touch from God. Of the miracle of freedom from the chains of sin. These are things I can cling to as memory stones - moments when God became tangibly real. And when He seems very distant, I have to press in and remember. Remember the moments when He became real. Remember the times He came through when it looked impossible. Pain has a tendency to deaden our ability to remember. That’s why, when life gets rough, it’s doubly important to be intentional about remembering. To be honest, in moments of pain, the last thing I really feel like doing is to start giving thanks or remembering the goodness of God. But I find two things happen when I do. One, it helps me get my equilibrium back - I don’t stay in a funk for nearly as long. And two, it gives me the supernatural power to tell the enemy to get out of my life. That’s not to say that remembering God’s faithfulness is a surefire way to make sure nothing ever goes wrong or that it will right whatever wrong is going on instantly, but it puts you in the right perspective to choose hope. David did this in 1 Samuel 17 when he faced Goliath. He remembered. “The Lord delivered me from the hand of the lion and the bear, and He will deliver me from your hand!” he shouted in the face of this seasoned warrior. He remembered what God had done, and that gave him the strength to do what looked impossible. What if he hadn’t stored up those memories in his heart? What if he hadn’t looked back and remembered? His hope in God’s faithfulness, evidenced by what he’d seen God do, gave him the godly confidence he needed. I can’t prove it, but I suspect that he did something very similar when Scripture tells us that David ‘strengthened Himself in the Lord’ after the incident at Ziklag. That and worship are two of the best to shore up your faith when the wind and the waves are crashing against you. Maybe take some time and write down the miracles you’ve seen. That way, you’ll have a fair and accurate narrative to remind yourself when you’re having a hard time being thankful. Plus, you can sit with those memories and ruminate on God’s faithfulness. There’s nothing like that to build your faith for the situation you’re in right now. “Do not forget the good things the Lord has done for you...”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Sarah GraceHi! I'm Sarah Grace, and I'm so glad you stopped by the Wings of Heaven blog! You can find short posts for easy reading or longer, more in-depth musings! I hope you're blessed! Archives
February 2024
Categories
All
|