Remember
Memory can be a funny thing sometimes. For instance, all the perspectives of the memories of my dad cannot go beyond the age of eleven for me. My memories of him are those of a child up to age eleven. I was eleven when he died. My older brothers’ memories have a few more years on them. They were about to turn 15, 16, and 17 when we lost our dad. So, it can sometimes seem there are discrepancies between what I remember and what they remember. Our memories are not contradictory, however. They are rooted in what our perspective would have been at the time, based on our ages and maturity.
At eleven, in my eyes, my dad was very tall and strong and treated me wonderfully. He had just given me a bible for my birthday where he had written in it about how I would become a preacher and lead many. At eleven, I had not been able to get to that stage where I tested his patience and invoked his anger like my teenage brothers did. So my memories of him are mainly good and of him being larger than life.
One such memory was when I was one year from being eligible to play little league baseball, and my dad tried his best to get them to let me play on his team. My youthful experience with him gave me pleasant memories of him. I choose to remember the good things.
Like it or not, your memories from a younger time will often center on the person you were depending on; they most likely will focus on who seems larger than life to you.
Even though perspectives are based on our level of maturity at a moment in time, it is important to remember some things as we walk with Christ through this life. It is important to remember the love, care, grace, mercy, and help He supplied to us at the first.
Ephesians 2:11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
What made this so important to be remembered by the believers at Ephesus? I think Paul knew that if they began to forget it, they would journey into a performance mentality that would rob them of the power of walking according to the Spirit with thanksgiving. I believe Paul knew that if they failed to remember, they risked losing their identity and love for Christ.
Losing touch with how we entered the kingdom by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ can be a dangerous path. We would do well to heed the advice given in Scripture.
Colossians 2:6&7 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
When we remember and regain our sense of the gift really being a gift, we cultivate gratitude, and in response to that, we give thanks. Being thankful for the right reasons is healthy and strengthening in our walk with Jesus. The way to know you are remembering right is by the fruit of gratitude and the desire to give thanks. I encourage you today to remember and allow it to lead you into thanksgiving towards God.
