Because We Forget

Was it David who said, "My soul is overwhelmed within me?" I love how real David was.  He said all that was on his heart to God and we get to read it. I'm pretty sure he didn't edit what he wrote. It sounds like he had to get it off his chest and so he wrote it down as it came forth. He didn't stress about sounding good or politically correct. He didn't worry how the reader might take such heart felt drivel. His concern was more about staying current with God, not whether or not his words would look good on paper or be read a hundred years from when he wrote them.

And then once and in awhile he wrote things so deep, it becomes a moment of worship when the reader comes across it at just the right moment in his/her life. He understood how human we really are and how prone we are to dwell on our own problems and miss the big picture. He wrote this too.

Psalm 106 tells how we do forget what God has already done in our past and what He is doing NOW and in our future. Verses 7-12: When our fathers were in Egypt, they gave no thought to your miracles. They did not remember your many kindnesses, and they rebelled by the Red Sea. Yet, he saved them for his name's sake, to make his mighty power known. He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; he led them through the depths as through a desert. He saved them from the land of the foe; from the hand of the enemy he redeemed them. The waters covered their adversaries; not one of them survived. THEN they believed his promises and sang his praises. BUT, they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his counsel. In the desert they gave way to their craving; in the wasteland they put God to the test.

There's much more here.  I'll leave the rest for you to study on your own. Here's what speaks to me: I have an Egypt now an then when God is taking me out of a situation and I'm not even noticing. I don't see the circumstances as kindnesses. I sometimes get to the Red Sea, something insurmountable, and I rebel. Yet, my gracious Father saves me to show me Himself in my life. And he does. He totally dries up the Red Sea of my life, takes me through the depths and on through a desert. He takes out my foes and enemies by drowning them, not one survives.  Then, I too believe and sing God's praises.  For a little while. Then I forget these miracles as such. I forget his promises for my future as well.  I forget to wait for His counsel and give way to my cravings of wanting to feel significant, adored, and admired.

And unlike David, I would rather not cry out to God with my messes.  I tend to have the idea, 'if you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all'. However, God wants us there in that spot all the time; open and admitting our own frailness. Sometimes, even our cries for help are praises to our God. Let God be the judge of what our cries mean to him. I'm pretty sure he already knows.

Because we forget, we struggle to sound good, to make a great life, to move earthly mountains, to impress people we don't even know, and to say only the pretty. It becomes a greater temptation to feel important and significant in someones life, than to remember that it is in God's eye of approval that we are able to have out adversaries covered with water.

LETS REMEMBER! It is to God we sing out praises and howl out pain and cry out our pleas for help.  God knows what he is doing with this realness and honesty in our lives. During these kinds of times, our faith is made stronger by clinging to those promises and remembering what he has done before and what he will do again if we let him.