Remembering

You know how you start hearing from every area about one particular thing, and you KNOW God is trying to tell you something? Well, that’s been me the last few days, folks. I think God is reminding ME, as well as wanting to share with lots of you out there, that we need to remember Him. We need to remember all the good God has done in our lives.

Joanna and I are doing Me, Myself and Lies, a Bible study by Jennifer Rothschild. This week has been about remembering.

Yesterday I was blessed to have an amazing angel (see previous post) come and clean my house, for free, someone I had just met when she walked through my door…just because she loves to serve God, and God wanted to bless me through friends. She asked me to tell her my story, and I was remembering all the things God saved me from while I was really, really ill.

I receive Chronic Illness Devotionals in my email every day, and guess what yesterday’s was? You got it: remembering the good God has done.

If you have read this blog long, you know my favorite book on the planet (besides my Bible) is my Synonym Finder. I’m a word nerd. So of course, I had to look up every synonym for “remember.” Here are a few of my favorites: recall, recollect, call to mind, have at the tip of your tongue, keep in mind, bear in mind, be aware of, review, go over, memorize, have by heart.

Wow. Can you imagine if we truly did this? If we made a list of all the good God has done…Well, we couldn’t even make a list that long! But then, to really remember. To call to mind. To go over. To memorize. To have by heart.

One of my favorite Scripture stories is of God leading the Israelites through the Jordan River. Not to mention it was at flood stage! He told Joshua to take 12 stones out of the MIDDLE of the Jordan, and build a memorial as to what God had done there. That way, when their children asked, they could explain how God had saved them once again.

Do you have a memorial? Do you have any physical reminders of God’s goodness? I encourage you to find one. For many, it can be photos… I have many photos from when I was ill, and to look back and see how far God has brought me, well, it’s just amazing.

For some, it’s something that may have caused them physical injury or helped them heal: a cast, a piece of metal; for soldiers, maybe shrapnel or a bullet. Something that you can show your children and say, “This is just one way God has done good for me.”

Even in the BAD times, God is working for our benefit. I know if you are going through something right now that may be reallllly tough to believe. But I am telling you from experience! I have been fighting myasthenia for 14 years now. Nine years ago I should have died. More than once. My ENTIRE life has changed. I’m on disability. I can’t work. I didn’t think I could have children (see Jacob, miracle child!). My independence is virtually gone. I have lost numerous people in my life whom I thought were friends. I am judged constantly because I don’t look like I’m dying. I have a trach through which I breathe.

And yet, I wouldn’t trade any of it, because God has done so much in my life since then. I know Him better, although I still have a loooong way to go! I love more deeply, more easily, I forgive MUCH more easily, I’m not nearly as impatient as I used to be. Life is precious. I don’t get angry like I used to. Things that used to bother me just roll off me like water off a ducks back. Now, I’m not saying nothing ever gets to me, because it surely does. There are things that will always be wrong and unjust, and that will never change.

But things like traffic jams, construction delays, changes in plans (which used to send me over the edge), unexpected small problems, what to eat and what to wear…it’s like, who cares? The God of the Universe has reached into my soul to change me for the better. Whatever I have to deal with I will, because I wouldn’t have missed that for the world.

“Bless the Lord, Oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits!” Psalm 103:2

Will you share a remembrance of what God has done in your life?