Tag: Remember

Remember and Turn Back

Jesus knows the condition of our heart. He knows where we are in our relationship with Him. Regardless of how you may be fooling yourself and/or others, Christ knows.

“4But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” – Revelation 2:4 (ESV)

Even as He does know the current condition of our heart, Jesus also knows where we were at one point and that we do have the capacity to get back there. It is however a conscious decision to turn back to Him and get right in our following of the LORD.

“2I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.” – Revelation 2:2-3 (ESV)

We know where we were. We know that we are sinners and were without salvation at one time. We accepted the gift of salvation that was give by Christ and progressed doing the work the LORD had for us. And then, as noted in verse four above, we see that we have fallen away from that work. We turned away from the LORD, maybe not consciously, but turned away none the less.

“5Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.” – Revelation 2:5a (ESV)

This is where we are, we need to get back to our communion with the LORD. We need to re-engage with Him and find our way back to Him. We need to get back to where we were at first. Back to endurance, back to calling out evil, back to recognizing and calling our the false, and back to acting and doing the name of Jesus. We have turned away and abandoned the LORD, now is our time to turn back to Him and get back to work spreading His Word, the gospel, to all the world.

Where are you in your relationship with the LORD? Have you turned away and toward yourself? What if you remembered and turn back to Jesus and begin again doing the works you did when you first came to know Him?

Love the Beauty of Your Wife

Lori and I have been married for 29 years, which means that in that time we have changed a lot. We got married. We grew older. We became parents with a house full with our boys. We celebrated our boys movement out of our home on to there own lives. We are now back to where we started with just the two of us. It is time to get on with the love we have for one another that started all those years ago. And it is up to me.

“18Let your fountain be blessed,

and rejoice in the wife of your youth,

19a lovely deer, a graceful doe.

Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight;

be intoxicated always in her love.”

— Proverbs 5:18-19 (ESV)

The woman I married is there still. She may have changed physically, but so have I. She is still as lovely today as she was all those years ago. I have to remember that God gave me her for the balance of our lifetime, not for just a short while. She is lovely and intoxicating and I will always love her as the woman God gave to me.

When you see your wife, see her as you did when you fell in love with her. She was grandiose then as she took your breath away and she is grandiose now as you continue trying to catch the breath she took away.

The passage I read this morning is titled in my ESV Bible; “Warning Against Adultery”. The quickest way to wander down the path of adultery is to seek out that which seems to have been lost. The beauty of your wife is what you seem to have lost. But, that beauty is not gone. It is there still, it is that we have to think to that which caused to fall in love in the first place. That woman never left. She may feel distant, but couldn’t that be due to our lack of seeing her as we did then.

Look back to when you fell in love with your wife. See the beauty in her face. See the beauty in her body. Love her again for who she is and was. She is still there in front of you just as she was then.

What is it that drew you to your wife? Are you somehow seeing that as gone? What if you were to look to when you fell in love with her and see her today for the beauty she has since that day?

Keep the LORD on Your Heart

When in the work, it is easier to keep the work in focus and we will remain on task. But, when the work is “done” we will find ourselves drifting away from the work and onto/into things that are not of a productive nature.

“4And now the Lord your God has given rest to your brothers, as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your tents in the land where your possession lies, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan. 5Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” – Joshua 22:4-5 (ESV)

Joshua is advising those that have come to be with and help out their fellow Israelite people that their work is done and they are free to return to their homes and live out their lives. Joshua is indeed thanking the people for their help and advising them that they have done that which God had asked of them. Now they can return home and get back to their own, caring for themselves.

But, Joshua also charges them to keep the LORD on their heart. They are to return home and get back to life, and they are not to forget what they have done and how they have done it. The LORD had given them victory as they had obeyed Him and now they should remain in the LORD and continue to receive victory.

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, it is easy to remain on task while doing the work, but when the work slows, we tend to wander off task. Joshua is warning the people of this as he sends them home. He wants them to know that they are free to return home, only not to forget the LORD who provided for them and the victory they achieved.

I have to remember to keep the LORD on my heart at all time. I have to not give in to the distractions of the world. I have to love and serve the LORD, “with all your heart and with all your soul”. It is okay and encouraged to get back to the life that I have been given by the LORD, only I have to remember that He gave it to me. I have to remember Him in all that I am and do.

Where is the LORD in your life? Once you have completed the work, have you drifted off, away from the LORD? What if you were to stay on task with the LORD, remembering Him on your heart as you traverse this life in this world regardless of where you are?

Abundance and Prosperity From the Heart

“10when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” and “9The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers,” — Deuteronomy 30:10 & 9 (ESV)

I know that I have captured the two verses above in reverse order. I do that as it is now in the cause and effect order. The LORD will make us prosperous and will provide abundance when we are obeying Him fully, not just in action, but with our hearts.

I wrote recently of the over abundance that God will provide when everything comes from the heart. The people gave for the building of the temple from their hearts and there was so much given that Moses had to tell them to stop giving. When we are going about our lives with Christ from our heart He will not only make sure there is more than enough for His work, but He will also provide abundance for you and me.

You see, it is not just about loving the LORD with all your heart. It is also about obeying His every command. Our pastor, Jared Patrick just did a message on bad days and what to do about it. One of the points in the sermon was that we may be obeying perfectly to God’s plans and commandments, yet the outcome was not what we expected to come. God does not always reveal to us the outcome, He may only reveal the work and our role is to obey. Our obedience is from the heart and not just on the surface of things. We have to fully believe and trust that God will use us as He needs and that we will be rewarded for the work, in the way that He sees fitting. So, as Jared pointed out in his sermon, what do we do on a bad day:

1. Remember who God is

2. Recall What God Has Promised

3. Trust What God Will Do

4. Stay Faithful Even When You Feel Empty

5. (this one is from me) Obey God From The Heart

I want to be clear, we do not do the work for some sort of reward. We do the work for the LORD and to spread His message to all around. But, we will be rewarded and that reward will be abundance and prosperity that we can only imagine today.

Where does your obeying come from? Are you doing things specifically to receive some sort of reward a, quid quo pro kind of thing? What if you were to just obey the LORD with all your heart and know that you will be rewarded in some way at some time in abundance and prosperity?

God Will Remember

Have you ever taken the action to tie a piece of string in a bow to your finger to remember something. This string is a reminder that there is something to remember. Do you know or remember that God created a bow to remember?

“13I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” – Genesis 9:13-16 (ESV)

God destroyed the earth and everything on it through the flood. And then, He made a covenant with Noah that He would not do it again. And as a reminder, the LORD put the rainbow in the sky as a reminder of the covenant He made with Noah, so that when He would see it, He would remember.

We need reminders to keep us grounded and back on track. God placed the rainbow in the sky to remind Himself and we should have reminders as well. It is easy for us to forget things as we get distracted by all that is going on. It is these distractions that the evil one is counting on. It is up to us with the help of the LORD to get rid of the distractions and stay on task for the LORD.

I have to, as I do in the mornings, devote myself to time with God so that I can learn from Him. I must dedicate myself to the time with Him to ensure that I do not forget Him. I need the constant reminder of His power and glory in my life and the life of the world. Days like this morning and remembering the covenant God made with Noah and the rainbow reminder are anchors to keep me with the LORD all the day.

The LORD has a reminder of the destruction He rained on the world and that He has promised not to do again. We need reminders as well. One of those is to make time to be in the Word of God to study and learn of the ways He is working for our good.

What is your thought on reminders? Are you hoping that you will just remember things? What if, like the LORD, you used reminders of the LORD’s work to keep you tracking in His Will?