Sometimes, we forget. I think that may be by design.
I surrendered to Jesus Christ in April of 2020, and every year since, around April, I try to look back at the previous year of walking with God. For about five separate reasons, the past couple of months has been so challenging that it's caused me to easily forget all of the joy and growth of 2023. In other words, my anxieties over the present and the future can cause me to take my focus off of the promises of God, and what He's done in my life to get me here.

God never moves away from us; but we can move away from Him. I just read about a prominent person going through 'deconstruction', which always grieves me to hear. As with sin, this doesn't happen overnight. It's the gradual process of compromise, which leads to different interpretations, then before you know it, you think "Did God really say?", and forget who said it first.

The solution is remembrance. After important events, Israel would build an altar, to remind them, and their children, and their children's children. Christ said to take communion "in remembrance of Me." John received a word from the LORD that the church of Ephesus had forgotten their first love, and pleaded for their return.

The same God that parted the Red Sea, also stopped the Jordan River for the next generation, to cross to the Promised Land. God is willing to remind us of His great and precious promises, so that we can become closer to Him each time we re-read, re-pray, or remember, and learn something new from His infinite depths. That's why I think forgetting and remembering is all part of God's design for intimacy.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. We return to our first love through tears, by fasting, by uncomfortable obedience. We return through the hard way. We return by doing the works which we first did, pouring over our Bibles with passion, and giving our anxieties to God, all over again.

Have we forgotten that Jesus has already won? The devil has already lost. Have we forgotten that we have power over temptation? Have we forgotten that God hears us? If we forget, the devil wins. He'll remind us of how hopeless the world is, and how simple the 'easy way out' can be. Apathy is our enemy, too. It's not fair to us, or the ones we love that are losing. We shouldn't stand for it.

We can't forget. We can't be apathetic.
We have to fight, and fight hard.
Now is the time to stand. Today is the day of salvation.

In Jesus' Name, Amen!

All music is performed and arranged by Ian Gregory Blain.
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