Remember...

God has been speaking to me a lot lately about remembering - remember from where I have brought you, remember your former slavery, remember who I am, etc. Its not that I intentionally forget any of these things. As life happens and time passes, I find these things slip from my memory and experience. The voice that was one day so vivid and powerful becomes a distant whisper among all the other voices that clamour to be heard.

This led me to read back through some journals from the past couple of years. Wow. He has brought us through so much...shown Himself to be so faithful...has done amazing things in our midst. So, why do I so easily forget? I don't know the answer to that. One thing I know is, if I don't remain intentional every day to remember, those things get lost in the shuffle of my busyness, my "to-do" list.

Another thing I know is that God is faithful to pursue me in my forgetfulness. I will hear a line in a movie, read a passage of Scripture or a great book, or just be hanging out with friends and God will stir my heart back to center...remind me for what I was made. Its then that the real battle begins! I can choose to remember, or I can keep dabbling on the fringes, letting the busyness of life carry me along like a raft on a raging river until I'm so far away from God's destination for me that I can lose heart to the point it would be easy to lose hope of ever getting back.

That's where I find a lot of people whom God brings into my path - feeling hopeless that they will ever get back to who God intended them to be. They have bought into the lie that screams to them every day, "Your choices have disqualified you from EVER realizing God's intention for you." That's simply not true.

In the book of Jeremiah, we find that the nation of Israel had taken a trip down that raging river of bad choices yet God declares to them that He has a plan for them. A plan to prosper them and not to harm them...a plan to give them a hope and a future.

The choices of our past NEVER have to disqualify us from God's best for our lives...but that's our choice. The choices we make every day - the choice to do the next right thing - will determine whether we rest in the center of His will or keep drifting aimlessly down river.

May you always remember who you are and whose you are. And may that remembrance lead you to the abundant, fulfilling life found only in God.

Pastor Marc