I'm thinking today about the attitude-altering, life-changing power of remembering. Specifically, remembering Almighty God and His goodness and grace and glory. Maybe you don't need any reminding...but I know I sure did.
And so did the Israelites when they wandered in the wilderness for all those years under the leadership of Moses. Over and over again we read "they did not remember."
"They did not remember His power or the day when He redeemed them from the foe, when He performed His signs in Egypt and His marvels in the fields of Zoan." (Ps.78:42-3)
But aren't we often just like those forgetful Israelites? They didn't remember...and therefore they grumbled and complained and doubted and rebelled. We too, do not remember God's faithfulness to us in the past. We do not remember His power, His patience, His love, His grace, His forgiveness. And as a result we fret and fuss and worry and whine.
All the while, the God of all glory and grace loves us with an everlasting love. He patiently, kindly works and moves in ways we cannot see and do not understand. Even while we grumble and doubt, He continues relentlessly putting the pieces into place...unseen, quietly....until one day, we suddenly see evidence of His miraculous and sovereign hand at work in our lives. And then finally we remember and rejoice...until the next crisis or concern when we can so quickly forget and fret and worry once again.
Just like the Israelites. Read their saga in Exodus--it's one long repetitive story of complaining and worrying. Why? Because they forget. They fail to remember...until God reminds them with unmistakable evidences of His power--parting of the Red Sea, mana provided daily, water issuing from a rock....on and on it goes. And sometimes the Lord "helps" them remember with terribly negative consequences for their faulty memories and fatally sinful actions--enemy invasions, catastrophic defeats, exile to foreign lands.
O Father, help us to remember You and Your supernatural power! Help us to remember Your goodness and grace to us in the past...and trust in Your eternal faithfulness for the future. Help us to remember Your Word. Help us to remember the extent of our sin...and the glorious and infinite grace of our Savior that is far far greater than all that sin. Help us, in the words of Stephen Curtis Chapman, "to remember our chains...and remember our chains are gone."
Just yesterday, God tapped us on the shoulder and reminded us to remember--at a neurologist appointment. Well, God can use anything, can't He?!
Janie's had a few more headaches and even a migraine recently, and so my husband asked her doctor as he examined her, "Well, how's she doing overall? Is she doing about what you would expect? Is this expected?"
Assuming the Doctor would reassure him that this was all to be expected, Richard was shocked when the doctor suddenly stopped with his examination and looked directly at my husband.
"No," the doctor answered seriously. "No, she's not doing at all what we would expect. With her type of traumatic brain injury, she should not be in college at all." He reminded us again that Janie's condition was nothing short of a miracle. The "expected" would be a vastly diminished condition--not attending college, not enjoying friendships or activities or regular old everyday life. Somehow we had forgotten the miracle that God had wrought in her life. O Father, how could we fail to remember?
Because here's the thing--whenever we forget God's goodness and grace in our lives, then we're quick to complain or fret or doubt or worry.
But when we remember, we're quick to thank and trust and turn over our problems to our ever faithful Father.
And just one little example of how quickly forgetting leads to fretting--anxiety over our daughter's wedding dress. Yes, we had heard some horror stories involving the place from which we ordered the dress--dresses ordered but never arriving or dresses not ready till the very last moment before the wedding and the like.
So we went into the default mode of panic over prayer. We started worrying...because we had stop remembering. Sigh. Where has that ever gotten any of us?
Then just the other day, the dress arrived. The folks at the shop were as nice as could be...and yours truly felt like a fussing, fretting, and forgetting Israelite. So quick to forget all God had done and so slow to remember to go to Him first in prayer and in trust. O Lord, please forgive me: Your all--too-often forgetful, faithless child! Forgive me for panicking rather than praying. Forgive me for complaining rather than coming and laying my burdens upon Your eternally powerful shoulders.
Maybe you've got a marvelous memory when it comes to the Lord. But for those of us who tend to forget--and that forgetting has let to fretting--might this be the day we remember and return to the God of all power and provision. Might we refuse to panic and instead chose to pray. And might we reject complaining and instead chose trusting and thanking.
Just in case you need a little help remembering, why not start here:
"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles." (Ps.103:1-5)
That pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?
O Lord, help us to remember...and in our remembering, to rejoice and trust in You. To our all-sufficient, all-glorious, all-gracious God be all the glory.
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