remember...
December 31, 2011
We never know how things will turn out.
If you are looking ahead to 2012 and worrying or wondering about the future, you are wasting your time. You would do well to stop ruminating over the unknown and start remembering the work of God in your life over this past year.
God is constantly imploring his followers to remember...
"Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm." Deuteronomy 5:15
"Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years,..." Deuteronomy 8:2
“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel." Malachi 4:4
[Jesus says] "Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?" Matthew 16:9
"Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel,..." 2 Timothy 2:8
"And he [Jesus] took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19
Sitting here at my cluttered desk on New Year's Eve 2011 I am remembering...
...that my sister has a new kidney.
...that God has done the impossible at our school (TCIS).
...that I have lived another year with my precious wife and two wonderful daughters.
...that I have enjoyed a year of good health.
...that I have friends and family who are growing in their walk with the Lord.
I can't do justice to these rememberings. In print they look so clean, simple and easy, but you know as well as I do that life is messy. With the good comes the bad and amazingly, in God's economy, out of the bad God brings good. This is where remembering really makes a difference.
We never know how things will turn out, but that is ok. We don't need to know the future. We just need to remember how God has worked over the days and months of 2011. We need to allow his faithfulness in the past to speak words of hope into our future.
Remember...God loves you.
Happy New Year