Forgetting and Remembering

I recently read through the book of Deuteronomy.  It is a book of remembering.  It reviews Israel’s history with a strong admonition to not forget. In fact, every time the Lord did something awesome for them, He encouraged them to declare it a holiday reminding themselves to never forget the occasion.  Passover is a great case in point. There are a lot of Jewish holidays on the calendar.

 A couple of examples from Deuteronomy are chapter four verse 9, “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. Make them known to your children and your children’s children.” and verse 23, “Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you.”

In my journal I wrote the following: “Lord, help me never forget who you are and who I am in you. To never forget what you are all about in my life; never forget your holiness and your expectations for me; never forget your love and power. I don’t want to forget anything about you; your plans, your purpose for me. I don’t want to forget that it’s all about you and not me.” 

I often find myself remembering things I should forget and forgetting things I should remember.

When things are not going well for me, either at home, in my personal life or in my work, I tend to forget God’s promises, his power and his faithfulness.  I remember my inadequacy and forget his adequacy. I remember my finiteness and forget his infiniteness.  I remember what I’m doing and forget what He’s doing. I remember the stupid and sinful things I do and forget his forgiveness and mercy. It causes me to be discouraged and lose hope.  It’s so hard to see when my eyes are on my.  One of the devil’s main jobs is to get me to take my eyes off Jesus and put them on myself. He tempts me to forget all that He is and remember all that I’m not!

Paul makes an interesting statement in Philippians 3 where he says in verse 13, “brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.” Sometime it is flat out hard to forget the things that should be forgotten and remember the things that should be remembered.  I should forget the sinful things that have been confessed and forgiven and not let the devil rub my nose in it; constantly remind me of what is under the blood of Christ.  He has been and will forever be the accuser of the brothers.who accuses us day and night before our God.”-Revelation 12:10. A friend once told me that when the devil knocks at the door send Jesus to answer it.  I go to the door by myself way too often and mostly get defeated.

Are you experiencing the enemy reminders of things you should be forgetting; things from your past that he keeps bringing up? Do you, like me, easily forget God’s gracious promises to you? Peter refers to them as precious and very great (II Peter 1:4).  Jump into the middle of these thoughts and share with me, and others who respond, your experiences in remembering and forgetting.  What has enabled you to live more in victory and less in defeat?