Fighting Forgetfulness

I think that often a Christian’s problems come from one thing. Forgetfulness. Now, I’m not talking about forgetting where you placed your keys, an anniversary date, or the reason you walked into the room you are in. This forgetfulness is much worse and can have even greater consequences in your daily life. It is the forgetfulness of some important truths that we find taught to us in the Word of God.

            One of these truths concerns who we are. Basically forgetting our identity. That we are sinners in daily need of God’s rescuing grace. We cannot get through a day on our own in our strength and power. We are impotent. We are dependent. We are in need. When we forget this, we don’t see the necessity of prayer and spend far too little time on our knees. We fail to look to God for His all sufficient grace. Like Adam and Eve before us, we will buy into the lie that we can be self-sufficient like God (Genesis 3:5). And also like Adam and Eve, the results will be disastrous! We can never do one thing to add to our salvation but find the salvation we need already accomplished by the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, through His perfect sinless life and substitutionary death on the cross. The moment we are no longer mindful of that blessed truth, we will become so weary focusing on our many, many, many daily failures rather than resting in the grace that has been provided and holding that as our comfort.

            Another truth we have a tendency to forget is whose we are. That, as the Heidelberg Catechism so beautifully put it, “I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” This means that Christians do not have a right to live as they please. They are not in charge of their lives. Christ rules over them and His Words direct how they are to live and what they are to do with their bodies. What happens when we forget this? Well, it will result in some sin. Just look at the church in Corinth as an example. They thought that they could do whatever they wanted with their bodies so they gave themselves over to sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:12-20). Such is the very reason Paul wrote, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (vv. 19-20). How many sins would be avoided if we kept in mind more often that we have given up all the rights to ourselves to the One who purchased our lives through the blood that He shed on the cross?

            We also wind up forgetting where we live. How many times do we get shocked at the things that are occurring in our world? Finding ourselves gasping at the violence, deceit, or hatred that feeds the news cycle? Or confused when our lives are disrupted by an illness, job loss, death, or another major difficulty? Shouldn’t we actually expect such in a broken fallen world under the curse of sin? Things are not right in this world. They are not the way that they should be. “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it” (Romans 8:20). The only reason we can experience anything going right in this world comes from God’s grace in sending His Son to redeem us from under the curse and in the promise of His return to restore this world back to where it was before the curse.

            And we continually forget where our home is. As worked up as we can get about our material possessions or about the election of the president of an earthly nation, you would think that this earth is our home. That we plan to be here for all eternity. The things of this temporary world appear to mean the most to us. We can never seem to have enough and always want something bigger and better. But, doesn’t Scripture tell us that “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20)? That we are not to lay up for ourselves treasures on earth which will be destroyed but instead treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-20)? Isn’t our example the Old Testament Patriarchs who saw themselves as “strangers and exiles on the earth” looking for a better heavenly city (Hebrews 11:13-16) instead of the rich fool who planned to build bigger barns to store his excess in order to, in a sense, “retire early” (Luke 12:13-21)? Our affluent extravagant lifestyles reveal to us just how much we have forgotten this truth.

            So, what is the remedy to this forgetfulness? To immerse ourselves in the Word of God and allow the Spirit to shape and mold us according to it’s truths; the very ones that we are so prone to forget. Popular author Randy Alcorn has said, “During the days when I neglect to spend time in God’s Word, I see a very real difference in my eternal perspective (and my lack of perspective).” We see a real difference with how much we are mindful of these truths in our thoughts and actions with how much we intake of God’s Word. Guard against the natural tendency to forget who you are, whose you are, where you live, and where your home is by reminding yourself of the truth through reading and studying the Bible.

Love in Christ,

Pastor Lee