I remember in grade school, Groveland Park Elementary; I had a foot race against a classmate. He had just received new shoes from his parents that would make him run fast. As a quick runner, I “smoked him,” and he was left scratching his head, wondering how he lost. In that same school, when it snowed out, we would go outside for lunch recess and push around a vast, five-foot snowball. I remember playing hockey in high school and becoming the team’s assistant captain. I remember the incredible feeling of accomplishment during the last day of high school. I remember the day I met my wife; the day I got married; the day we had each of our children; and the day I got diagnosed with life-threatening cancer. But over everything in my life, the memory that strikes me the most is the day I gave my life to Jesus in January 1987.
Remember the Day of Old
Psalm 143:5 teaches us to remember the “days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.” Often, when we forget our history, we are likely to fail. When we forget what God has done for us; how he healed us; how he provided for us; how he made a way when there was no way. When we forget his deliverance, we fret and worry. When our faith fails us, and we don’t see any way out, we ignore God’s track record of his lovingkindness or “chesed,” His goodness, kindness, and faithfulness.
How insulting to the God of the universe. He faithfully shows up and delivers while we faithfully forget and quiver. Psalm 78 describes this in detail:
- 9-11 – they turned back in the day of battle, didn’t keep God’s covenant, and forgot His wonders and works.
- 42 – they forgot how God delivered them from the enemy.
The entire chapter is a worthy read, describing what happens when you forget God. Thankfulness turns into selfishness, and God’s delivering power is disdainfully disregarded. Unfortunately, people do this all the time. Why? Because they have forgotten how God has delivered them.
Remember the Battle
I remember battling cancer and crying out to God for miraculous healing. All the while I was being healed, I was somewhat disappointed that an instantaneous miracle did not occur. After the cancer went into remission, I met with a cancer research scientist who was fascinated with me. He shook my hand and mentioned that I should not be alive. “You don’t understand, do you,” he said. I admitted that I did follow his logic. “You shouldn’t be alive right now. You are a miracle! Let me shake your hand again.” He was more impressed with the miracle of me still being “vertical” than I was. How thankless of me. God had given me one health victory after another, and I was looking for something else.
Don't Forget to Remember
How easy it is to be drawn into forgetfulness. Many forget their first love; look at today’s divorce rate. Men are attracted to a woman, marry her, and then soon forget what attracted him to her in the first place. Similarly, we come to the Lord, repent, and he fills us with his Holy Spirit. And yet, we forget. Per Revelation 2:4, we leave our first love. Why? Because we forget. The solution is in verse 5; “remember from whence you are fallen, and repent, and do the first works again.” Go back in your memory bank and think of how he has delivered you!
Regarding my cancer battle, simply remembering how he helped me find the right doctor at the right time was a miracle. His providing for me financially for this ++ $1M sickness was a miracle. Me starting chemo when I did was a miracle. My body responding to the chemo was a miracle. I can continue; these memories help me realize how blessed I am and remind me of his “chesed.” When I remember how he delivered me from sin, gave me a new heart, forgave me, and helped me overcome addiction, my heart is refreshed to press forward in my walk with Him.
Remember Starts Today
Friend, do you remember when he delivered you from sin, and you received a new heart? If not, likely, you have never been born again. Memories begin with a seedling idea and germinate into a life event. Today can be that life event; rather, today must be that life event, as you are not guaranteed tomorrow. Repent and believe the gospel. Per Romans 10, confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart he rose from the dead, and you shall be saved. If you repented at one point and now live in sin, REPENT. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 proclaims that you are deceived and will not go to heaven if you died today. You are NOT guaranteed heaven because you prayed a prayer once in your life. Read the below scripture carefully; nobody is eternally secure. You must overcome the “if.”
Hebrews 3:7-15 Today, if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. 11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)2 12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; 15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. Remember!
