REPOST Today’s Spiritual Food for Thought, written by Pastor Sam Lee who leads Catalyst Agape Church in Northern New Jersey, was first posted on October 29, 2013.  He is a graduate of University of Wisconsin (BA) and Biblical Theological Seminary (M.Div.).

Spiritual Food for Thought for the Weekend

“The Blessings of Remembering” 

Psalm 7:11-12 (NIV)

“I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”

My daughter has a habit of keeping things that are associated with pleasant memories, such as birthday cards, notes, and letters. Some time ago, my family and I went to Honduras for three weeks during the summer.  My daughter made many friends there and when it was time to leave, they gave her many small gifts and notes, and even now, she treasures them. As for my wife and I, when we left a ministry, we had received a jar filled with personal notes, but after reading them, we tosses out the notes and kept the jar.  Upon seeing this, my daughter looked at us in shock as if she were saying, “How can you throw away such precious things?”

There is great value in remembering what the Lord has done in our past, especially during our dark and rainy seasons in life, for it brings us hope that He will come through for us with even greater works.  One reason people turn away from God and go astray is that they forget the great things the Lord had done for them; even those of us who have walked with God for a long time tend to be nearsighted. More than often, we tend to forget the good that God has done but dwell on our bad situation and complain to God rather than giving thanks.

No sooner had Gideon died, the Israelites again prostituted themselves to Baal. They set up Baal-Berith as their god and did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side (Judges 8:33, 34 NIV). We see this pattern repeated in the Bible as people apostatize over and over.

But as for God, He remembers all the good things we try to do and forget the sins we repented of, for God is love and keeps no record of wrongs. Of course we should not live by just dwelling on the past glory of God as though that was the greatest thing He ever did, but as we remember all His great works, it should give us greater faith to expect even greater things from Him.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, You know my going in and my going out. You know my innermost thoughts. Sovereign Lord, You, in Your infinite grace and mercy, always remember the somewhat good and forget the bad I have done.  Thank You. Amen.

Bible Reading for Today: 2 Chronicles 6-7