Remembering God

This month I have been studying the Word of God in the Book of Joshua... In this study something has stood out to me and that is God's call for us to remember what He has done.

Joshua 4:21-24 (NIV BibleGateway.com)
21 He said to the Israelites, "In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, 'What do these stones mean?' 22 tell them, 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.' 23 For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God."

This is not an isolated incident where God has called the people to build a memorial of one of His wonderous acts... God knows His people. As we keep reading the Old Testament, we see that Israel provoked the Lord's anger when they forgot what God had done for them.

So is God trying to prevent them from having a reason to forget His graceful acts?? It sure looks that way. It seems obvious that God is trying to prevent them from making mistakes but they ignore them, and make the mistakes anyway... That is a-whole-nother topic.

I wrote this to encourage us to remember what God has done for us, and I do not just mean what He done for us when He died for us on the cross. But daily God gives us grace and mercy and we should take time to remember this. Often we pray for God to help us out of situations and He does and then a few weeks, months, or years later we forget what He has done. God is clearly stating to the Israelites (and us) that we need to remind ourselves every now and then of what He has done for us in the past. This will often increase our faith and prevent us from backsliding. Plus, what he has done for us can help others as well.

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You!!!

KC