Remember What He Has Done!

I was at a small group on Tuesday night and a man of twice my age responded to our response to the initial question with, "You remember what He has done!" The question was, "Where is God to you?" and I, as most others in the group responded with far, distant, somewhere else and not present.

These responses are not biblically true if you read the Bible, however they were the honest answer to the question and many people's real life feelings about where God is in their lives. Personally I believe and know that God of the Bible is omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent (all governing or all powerful), and omnipresent (present everywhere at the same time). However, my feelings don't always match up with that truth of God being omnipresent. I know that God is near and even closer than that, inside of me, but my feelings don't always sense his nearness. So how do I align my feelings with that truth?

Joshua chapter 4 describes the miracle of the waters of the Jordan being cut off by the Lord, allowing the nation of Israel to cross over on their journey to the promise land. As a remembrance the Lord had Joshua choose 12 men, one from each tribe, to go to the middle of the Jordan river and pick up 12 stones and bring them back to where they were staying for the night. Joshua set the stones up as Joshua 4:6,7 says, "to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."

God was teaching and demonstrating by a physical action of placing stones at the spot where the miracle was performed, this powerful lesson of remembrance. God also tells us in Deuteronomy 5 to not only observe the Sabbath every seven days, but in addition to keeping it holy, He commands us to remember that we were slaves in Egypt, and He brought us out with a mighty hand and outstretched arm. The Lord again wants us to remember what He has done in each of our lives every week. More important than a physical action, the Lord wants to get this powerful lesson of remembrance into our thought patterns and into our minds every day. He wants us to not only rest on the seventh day but also remember. In turn, this understanding and knowledge of what He has done for us, how He has been near in the past and will contiue to be near to us in the present and future, will trickle down into our hearts and influence our feelings with truth.

When things are tough, when the Lord is distant, and maybe even the times when you feel him very close, remember what He has done in your life, and you will be overcome with the discovery of this powerful lesson which brings the reality of our Lord's omnipresent attribute to our lives.