Remembering God

Prayer

Remembering

I have a terrible memory. I am notoriously forgetful. Let me clarify - I have a great short-term memory, which was really helpful in school, to be able to cram for tests, but it wouldn’t be long after that that I would forget just about everything I learned. I’ll read a book, watch a movie - I’m always very hazy on the details.

I don’t know what happened, because my mom has an incredible memory, somehow it skipped a generation. She’ll reference a trip we went on when I was a kid - talking about what places we visited, the names of them all, what year it was - and meanwhile, I’m thinking, I vaguely remember going on that trip, that sounds familiar.

I’ll ask my family questions they’ve already answered, which they love. You know how some folks can recite poems they memorized for a class assignment or sing all the lyrics to a song they enjoyed growing up? Not me, I’m lucky if I can remember the lyrics to the chorus of those popular songs (I’d honestly be lost without my sheets up here).

Here’s just a hint for you - I’m a great person to borrow things from because I will forget that you borrowed the item. Even when I realize it’s missing, when I go looking for it, I often won’t remember. So, no pressure to return the item.

Today, as we continue through the book of Deuteronomy, we’re going to focus on what it means to remember. And in particular, to remember God.

As usual, a brief recap (to help us remember). The book of Deuteronomy is a long speech that Moses is giving the Israelites right before they are going to enter into the land that God promised their ancestors to give them. They are on the east side of the Jordan River, right on the edge, about to enter in. Here, Moses is reminding them of all God has done for them to get them to this point, and of the laws and instructions he’s commanded them to obey (hence the name of the book, Deuteronomy, second law).

Over the last three weeks we’ve looked at the greatness of God, the fact that there is no other god like the Lord God (which we are to acknowledge and take to heart). And we looked at the great command, the Shema, the proper response to the greatness of God - that we are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our strength. And then last week, looking at Deuteronomy 7, we talked about the danger of the influence of the world around us. How, if we’re not careful, we will be influenced by the culture away from loving and being obedient to God.

Today, we’re going to be in Deuteronomy 8, looking at another part of the speech Moses gives the people. Here, God, through Moses, is preparing Israelites for what will happen to them after they enter the Promised Land if they are not careful, especially in regards to what will happen as they settle down, establish their fields and flocks and start accumulating wealth - which will be a very different experience from wandering in the desert! And it speaks to why it’s so important that they remember.

Remember God

Deuteronomy 8:1-5...Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.

As we see over and over again in Deuteronomy, Moses begins by encouraging the Israelites to follow every command that God has given them. Then, there it is - the command to remember. Do not forget. Remember all the things God did for you in the wilderness, and more importantly, why God lead you through the wilderness for forty years.

He tells them why - to humble you. To test you. To reveal what was in your hearts, if you would be obedient to God in tough circumstances. And he did humble them - allowed them to experience hunger. Then provided them with manna. So they would learn the essential lesson that “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

To teach them that they are to rely on God, that he is Jehovah Jireh, the Lord God Provider. He is the faithful one, the one whom we are to look to, to be attentive to every single word he speaks. He is the one we are to remember, because he is the one we can trust.

That’s what God was teaching them - it was a long lesson, a forty year lesson. Every day, trust me. Trust what I say to you, the words I speak, for they are life, you can bank your life on what I say. So obey me. Remember me. And it’s essential they learn this lesson because now the circumstances are going to be very different after they enter into the land - and they will be prone to forget. Which is exactly what Moses teaches them next...

Deuteronomy 8:6-11...Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. 10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.

Before, you were being constantly humbled, you had very little - it’s rough out in the wilderness. It’s a barren wasteland - not much food (certainly not for an entire nation), water is scarce. You have creatures like snakes and scorpions. When things are tough, we’re much more likely to look to God, to turn to him. Desert wandering is a strong encouragement to trust in the Lord.

But now, you’re going into a land where none of those things are true. This land is awesome - plenty of water, brooks and streams and springs. There are valleys and hills, greenery. Land is fertile - it will produce an abundance of wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, and so on. They are even going to have mineral resources - iron and copper! In other words, you’ll have everything you need in this land, you will lack for nothing. You won’t feel the constant sense of need, that sense of - God, we need your help here, like they did in the wilderness.

And because all this is true, Moses tells them, it is essential that you remember your God by praising him for the good land he has given you. That he kept his promises to you. Remember him by being obedient to all the commands you’ve been given. Because here’s the danger if you don’t remember God...

Deuteronomy 8:12-18...Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

If you don’t intentional remember God, praising him for all that he’s provided you with - you will become proud. Self satisfied. You’ll forget that all the goodness you have - your nice homes and growing herds and stores of food, gold and silver - that all of that comes from God, his gift, his goodness. You’ll forget all he did for you to enjoy the wonderful abundance you have.

You’ll become proud and self satisfied because you’ll think you did it, saying to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” By the way, we aren’t typically this blatant about it. This pride, self-satisfaction usually comes in much more subtle ways - vague sense of entitlement, of deserving everything we have (and the things we have have to be nice), pride in how hard we work, especially in comparison to others, or how thoughtful we are in how we handle our money (we’re thrifty, we save well), take care of things we have…and somehow, in the midst of it all, God is simply forgotten, he’s not part of the equation of how we’ve come to enjoy the lifestyle we have. That’s what will happen to the Israelites - if they’re not careful, and to us.

So, again, remember. Remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth. Remember the Lord your God because he’s the one who kept his promises, who was faithful to the covenant.

Remember to Remember God

Do you get the point? Remember. Do not forget. It was all God. He made this happen. And he is the one who will continue to make it happen, he sustains us. All you and I have, all we wonderful things we get to enjoy, all the wealth we are able to produce, is because of God.

And I want to raise a basic question here, maybe an obvious one - what does it mean to remember? What exactly are we doing when we remember something? When we don’t forget?

According to the dictionary, to remember is to recall to mind with effort, to think of again. We are bringing something to mind. You are becoming aware of it. When we remember something, that thought - the person, the image, the memory - is now present to your mind, to you. Top of mind, if you will.

If I ask you to think of something you already know or have experienced, you are remembering, consciously bringing to mind. If I asked you to think of your childhood bedroom, you can bring that to mind. If I asked you to think about the first conversation you had when you walked into church this morning, you can remember that, bring it to mind.

So, this is the idea, to remember God, to bring to God to mind. Make present to your mind what God has done for you. How he has blessed you - how he is blessing you in this moment. Or the fact that he is with us in this very moment. Not simply with us in this moment, but is with us in love, pouring out his love, his goodness, toward you, toward me, in this very moment. We can just take a moment to remember that is true, We can remember God in this moment.

Love the way C.S. Lewis writes about this in his book, The Screwtape Letters. This paragraph is in the context of what it means for us to be eternal beings, God created us for eternity...

He (God) therefore, I believe, wants them (us, human beings) to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself, and to that point of time which they call the Present. For the present is the point at which time touches eternity. Of the present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience analagous to the experience which God has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered them. He would therefore have them continually concerned either with eternity or with the Present - either meditating on their eternal union with, or separation from, Himself, or else (and here’s the point I really want to make) obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure.

Notice what he says we are to be mindful of, to bring to mind, to remember -

To meditate on eternity, dwelling on reality that we will be with God forever (or, sadly, for many people, that they are currently and eternally separated from Christ - though that can change in an instant).

Or, we are to be in the present moment - in particular to be present to God in the present moment. To remember God, to be mindful of God in whatever we are experiencing in the present moment.

Lewis gives us examples of what it looks like to remember God in the various moments of our lives - make the choice to be obedient to God, or recognizing that the suffering you are currently enduring is a cross God has given you to bear, or there is a gift from God to receive, a pleasure he’s blessed us with, enjoy that as a gift from him, giving thanks.

This is so powerful - just like the Israelites, whether it was in the wilderness and all their humbling difficulties, or living in the land they were about to enter into, and all its blessings, they were to remember God, to be present to him. Whether that was trusting and giving thanks for the most basic provision (like manna or water) in the midst of hunger or thirst, or praising him for good things they got to enjoy, for abundance. Making the decision to obey him, his commands, in spite of all the temptations of the neighboring peoples. That whatever the circumstances, they are remembering God, they are being mindful of him, his love, his faithfulness, his goodness.

Same is true for us - to remember God, to bring him to mind whatever the circumstances of our present moment.

In this moment, as you’re hearing this message - Lord, what are you teaching me? What is it that you want me to hear from you today. I want to live by every word that comes from your mouth.

As Lewis says, obey the present voice of conscience - that we would be mindful of how God’s spirit is prompting us toward obedience through our conscience. As we experience temptation to respond in anger (in your anger, do not sin), linger on the image of the seductively dressed woman, conversation about another person turns negative (don’t gossip!), feeling grumpy as you engage in a task (serve joyfully).

Bear the present cross - as you are experiencing pain, a difficult situation, to bring the Lord to mind, be with me, give me grace, strength, comfort. Don’t let my heart become resentful…don’t let me fall into despair...

Receive the present grace - gift being offered, grace of your home, of warmth, a compliment given, someone being helpful. Lord, thank you.

Give thanks for the present pleasure - to give thanks to God not just before the meal, but while you’re enjoying it! To delight in the goodness of God’s gifts, remembering him. Lord, this is awesome. Lord, you’re awesome!

This, of course, is the whole idea - to remember God, to bring him to mind. To be his people. To live life with God, with Jesus.

Spiritual Disciplines

Encourage you to do exactly that this week, to remember God throughout your day. What Moses is commanding the Israelites, to remember God, is an example of what we encourage week after week, spiritual discipline. To be intentional, to make it a habit, to bring God to mind, in all the various circumstances of your life. In order to live life with Jesus, to abide with him.

To help you do this, you might write a note or two and put in a spot where you will see it regular. A notification on your phone, just as an ongoing reminder. Begin the day with a prayer, asking God to help you to remember him, to be mindful of him, to practice his presence. Prayer God will delight to answer.

Remove distractions (hard to be mindful of God when your mind is preoccupied elsewhere).

Then, make the effort, throughout the day, to be in the present moment, with God - facing temptation, enduring a difficult situation, experiencing goodness, doing work, as you’re trying to make a decision, as you’re with someone (let me love them well, Lord), etc.

This really is the invitation of Jesus, to remain, to abide in him. To be connected, as the branch to the Vine. It’s a wonderful thought to think that God desires to live with us in this way. That he is always mindful of us, God never forgets us! More and more, the invitation is to remember him, to live life with him.