Remember As Commanded

“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good [things; so that] thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Ps 103:2-5 AV)

What follows verse two is a list of things the LORD has done for the penitent and obedient sinner.  For the most part, the psalmist speaks of God’s mercy and forgiveness.  He speaks of redemption and eventual glorification.  The truth that the Spirit is pressing today is forget not.  That is getting easier to do.  As the years creep up and the mind isn’t what it used to be, forgetting seems more common than remembering.  It starts out small.  We forget why we entered a room.  We forget where we placed something.  We forget certain tasks.  We forget a date or two.  Then it grows.  We forget distant events.  We know the facts of them.  What we cannot remember is the experience itself.  We forget lessons learned is school days of yore.  We forget to return a call or text.  We forget where we were going or how to get there.  When it comes to our salvation experience, it was decades ago.  So much change has come in all these years that it is hard to remember whence we had come.  We know all the doctrine.  We have merely forgotten how we know them.  Not forgetting is important.  Remembering is a source of joy.

Several years back, I had an interesting conversation with a well-seasoned and very spiritual man of God.  We were speaking in the lobby, and he asked me if I had ever doubted my salvation.  Most of us have.  Especially in the early years of our walk.  But what startled me was when he asked if I had ever doubted my salvation as of late.  Even after being saved for decades, did I still wonder?  He had confessed that from time to time he had this fleeting thought.  Now, I have to admit it is convenient to think that when we cannot seem to gain victory over a particular sin.  It explains our persistent disobedience.  Yet there should come a time when we have it settled.  What was the issue?  Memory.

Remembering is a deliberate exercise of the mind.  It requires an outward influence.  When we forget the old days, we look at pictures or listen to stories that jog our minds.  As of late, watching old programs has brought back to my memory my childhood.  I remember simpler days.  Remembering takes effort.  Remembering all that God has forgiven and that we are redeemed means remembering where we were and where we are now.  The phrase to forget not is a command.  It is not up to the LORD to remember for us.  It is our job to exercise the mind to remember how good God is and has been.  It is up to us to read our journals from days and years of old.  I have several wide-margin bibles.  When I fill one up, I buy another and start all over again.  I still have the one from Bible college.  Falling apart and gathering dust, it is a record of the path that God blazed for me.  Inside are notes from school.  But also, with the precious pages are notes from my devotions.  Remembering is a matter of breaking open these precious bibles and reading the notes contained therein.  If we are forgetting how good God has been and always will be, it might be pressing for us to draw up those mementoes of memory that remind us of the person of God.