“Only take care…lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and …they depart from your heart …..”
Deuteronomy 4:9
Boxes of memories sit dusty on the shelves that line the back wall of the basement. Childhood photos and relics, a seven-year-old’s drawing of the prophet Elijah, college love letters from the sweet man who still holds my heart, pressed dried flowers from corsages and bouquets no longer fragrant but beautiful still in their fragility – precious memories of days long gone.
Other boxes safeguard collections of accomplishments, crayon works of art, scrawled messages of love and appreciation, handmade cards, carefully crafted gifts, and so much more… each item a tender record of little boys becoming men, men becoming husbands, and husbands becoming loving fathers.
Some boxes stand open waiting for joy-filled memories to be added one at a time.
Life gets busy, but every now and then, the memories pour in uninvited but always welcomed. And as time allows, the boxes are revisited.
“You have received a memory that strings the events you cherish
as a jeweler strings pearls into a necklace.”1
A. W. Tozer
It is our nature to remember…the good, we want to document, record, and hold onto. As for the bad and the ugly, empowered by the Holy Spirit and covered in prayer, we resolve, forgive, heal, restore, and finally seal those memories in a box never to be visited again, unless careful revisiting is necessary to help another find healing as well.
Remembering…it’s what we do. It’s how our brains are wired. It is how our God created us.
And yet…we forget.
We are especially forgetful it seems when it comes to our relationship with God. We take great pains to save the precious memories of our earthbound lives, but how much time do we spend gathering the spiritual mementos of our walk with Christ?
I am talking about the big and little spiritual mile markers of your life:
- Your salvation experience,
- Your baptism as a Christ-follower,
- Prayers answered,
- Scriptures claimed,
- Blessings recognized and remembered,
- Those times when the Holy Spirit brings Scripture alive before your eyes and quickens your heart,
- Times when you saw God’s hand guiding your steps,
- Challenging times of discipline and growth,
- God-given comforts in grief and sorrows,
- All those times that you knew God was working in you, through you, and all around you.
Why is important to remember?
Because Scripture tells us to.
Scripture repeatedly warns us to remember – to never forget who God is and what He has done for us. The Israelites were firsthand witnesses to God’s power and awesome might as He brought them out of Egyptian slavery, protected and provided for them during their forty-year sojourn in the wilderness, and then led them into the land of milk and honey. And still they forgot. And that is why Scripture warns:
- Remember the commandments of the LORD, obey them; don’t be led astray by your own eyes and heart; and be holy. Num 15:39, 40
- Remember how God brought you out of slavery, saved you with His mighty hand, and dealt with your enemies. Don’t be afraid. Exodus 13:3; Deuteronomy 5:15, 7:18, 14:18, 15:15, 24:22
- Remember that it is God who led and provided for you; He has blessed you; He will keep His Covenant with you, and He will remember His promises. Deuteronomy 8:2, 18; Joshua 1:13
- Remember God’s wondrous works, His miracles, and His righteous judgments. 1 Chronicles 16: 12; Psalm 77:11, 105:5, 143:5
- Remember that He is God, there is no other; there is none like Him. Isaiah 46: 9
- Remember that you were once dead in your trespasses and sins, “BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us…made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:1, 4-6
In Matthew 16:5-12, Jesus warned his disciples about the “leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.” At the mention of leaven, the disciples thought Jesus was referencing the fact that they had forgotten to bring bread and they began whispering amongst themselves about what to do about the missing bread. Jesus broke off his teaching, “O you of little faith.” Why are you talking about bread?“ Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand…or the seven loaves for the four thousand…?” Remember all the leftovers? You have missed the whole point of my teaching because you have forgotten that I have already proven I can provide the bread.
Even Jesus’ disciples, His chosen twelve, had short-term memory when it came to spiritual things. When this bread incident occurred, the disciples had already seen Jesus turn water to wine, cast out demons, heal the sick, raise the dead, walk on water, and feed thousands. How do you forget those things?
How? Exactly the same way that you and I will forget what God has done for us, if we do not constantly, intentionally remind ourselves who God is, what He has done for us, and what He expects of us. We must REMEMBER.
In 2 Peter 1:3-9, Peter told the Christian recipients of his letter that God has provided everything needed to live godly lives; he went on to describe all of the qualities that should be evidenced in the lives of a believer. Then he said, “for whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.”
Peter continued, “Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it is right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder….” Peter knew we are prone to forget.
REMEMBER. Stay in God’s Word, it is by far the primary and best reminder of who God is, what He has done for you, and what He expects of you. Then create your own box of spiritual memories, whatever that may look like for you – a journal, a notes app on your phone, a literal box filled with notes, a notebook, notations in your Bible. What form it takes does not matter, what matters is storing the treasured memories that tell the story of your walk with Christ. Memories that you can bring out from time to time to remind yourself of all that God has done and is doing in your life.
“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life.”
Deuteronomy 4:9