DON’T FORGET TO REMEMBER

“Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” Deuteronomy 5:15.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!” Isaiah 43:18,19a.

Isn’t it strange how we remember what we should forget and forget what we should remember? We struggle to forget the hurts and offences we have received from other people and yet we quickly forget the good things God has done for us. We remember the bad things that happen to us, but the good things often pass by unnoticed.

Before Moses died, when the children of Israel stood on the edge of the Promised Land, he reminded them of the way God had delivered them from slavery, led them, provided for them, protected them and cared for them for forty years in the desert. One of the key words of the Book of Deuteronomy is “remember”. Moses had to command the people to remember because, if they forgot where they had come from, they would soon become proud and self-sufficient, and they would no longer trust and worship the Lord as their God.

How important it is for us also to remember where we came from. We were dead in sin and in bondage to the devil until Jesus made us alive by His Holy Spirit and set us free from our bondage to sin and our slavery to addictions, bad habits and behaviour patterns. How important it is for us to remember the good things God does for us every day. He gave us a beautiful world to live in, He provides the sunshine and rain that make our plants grow, He give us food, clothing and shelter; we enjoy the love of friends and family and, most of all, He has given us His own Spirit to be in us forever. There is nothing we need that He has not given us so that we can live our lives in Him and for Him.

When we have grateful hearts and are always thanking Him for His goodness, we will not be grumblers and complainers like Israel was, making God angry and bringing His judgment on them for their unbelief.

But God also commands us to forget certain things. We need to forgot our past sins and failures, as well as our achievements, and stretch forward towards the most important goal, knowing Jesus our Lord, because all these things, good and bad, will hinder us from growing in our faith and moving towards the future God has for us. God does not stand still. He has big plans for all His people. He does not want us to settle down where we are and never reach towards greater things in the future. So, the Apostle Paul said, “One thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind …I press on toward the goal to win the prize…” Philippians 3:13b, 14a.