My Dear Friend,
I pray that today’s word of encouragement will be a reminder for all of us of something that is more important than anything else. As always, you are loved and you are missed!
Love in Christ Jesus,
Pastor Mark
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” Psalm 103:2
“Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord…His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life…For this reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual kindness; and to mutual kindness, love. If you possess these qualities, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ…I will always remind you of these things…it is right to refresh your memory…I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.” 2 Peter 1:2-15
Remind Us, Dear Lord!
In today’s Scripture, Peter reminds us of three things:
- Grace and peace are abundantly available to us through knowledge of God and Jesus.
- By God’s divine power, everything we need has already been given to us as believers.
- However, effort is still required on our part to develop and maintain the qualities necessary to keep experiencing God’s peace, and to be effective and productive in our faith.
But because humans are prone to easily forget, Peter’s great concern was that even established believers must be continually reminded of these things. He said it was “right” to refresh their memories, so that they would never forget the secret for keeping hold of God’s grace and peace. And he made “every effort” to be sure that they would remember these things, even after his death.
It is a fact that there are benefits to remaining in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus. But how easily we forget what Christ Jesus has already done for us in the past! The reasons for this are twofold: First, we are human – and humans by nature are forgetful. Second, there are spiritual forces in the world, commanded by “your adversary the devil” (1 Peter 5:5), who actively seek to clutter the front of our minds with other things (e.g. worries!), thus pushing memory of previous blessings to the backs of our minds.
Forgetting all the ways in which God has blessed us (and rescued us!) in the past causes us to lack faith presently. And since “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen” (Hebrews 11:1), a lack of faith in the present makes it hard to foresee God’s blessings for the future.
Being aware of how easily humans can lose sight of God’s blessings – past, present, and future – Peter says, “I will always remind you of these things,” and “it is right to refresh your memory.”
So what measures might you be taking in order to keep from forgetting all the things that God has done for you in the past; how His divine power is sufficient to provide grace and peace for you in the present; and how He will sustain you for His glory in the future?
Satan’s greatest scheme is to get us to forget what God has already saved us from, thus making us ungrateful. That is why I love the words to this beautiful song written by Dottie Rambo entitled, “Remind Me, Dear Lord.” The chorus goes like this:
“Roll back the curtain of memory now and then; Show me where You brought me from, and where I could have been; Remember I’m human, and humans forget; So remind me, remind me, dear Lord.”
What a powerful prayer!
“Show me where You brought me from.” One of the greatest offenses to God’s grace is to forget all the ways in which we were headed for trouble and God in His mercy and grace spared us from potential disaster.
“Show me where you brought me from, and where I could have been.” If we could only see all the ways in which our poor choices could have destroyed us, except for God’s mercy and grace!
When God finally does open up the curtain for us to see just how his grace and mercy had preserved us, we shall finally realize just how much it was worth it to stay with Jesus!