Remember

In 2012, one of the biggest themes/ messages that the Lord taught me was to “remember”.  As I was reading through Deuteronomy it kept standing out to me how the word remember was repeated over and over again.  Here are just a few of the verses that stood out;

Deuteronomy 4:20  Remember that the Lord rescued you from the iron-smelting furnace of Egypt in order to make you his very own people and his special possession, which is what you are today.

Deuteronomy 5:15  Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt, but the Lord your God brought you out with his strong hand and powerful arm. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to rest on the Sabbath day.

Deuteronomy 7:18-19  But don’t be afraid of them! Just remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all the land of Egypt.  Remember the great terrors the Lord your God sent against them. You saw it all with your own eyes! And remember the miraculous signs and wonders, and the strong hand and powerful arm with which he brought you out of Egypt. The Lord your God will use this same power against all the people you fear.

Deuteronomy 8:2  Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands.

In 2012 Jeremy and I were thrust into a new level of relationship with the Lord.  We began to know and experience Him in new, deeper ways.  He revealed Himself to us constantly.  And He did a lot of really cool things in, through, and around us.  I kept hearing Him say “Remember”.  “Remember these things”.  “Hold on to them”.  “Let this event/ experience be an altar that you build to me, having come to encounter and know me in a new way”, much like Israel did in the Old Testament when they would build an altar to God to show how He had delivered them or provided at a specific time and location.  (Exodus 20:24 “Build for me an altar made of earth, and offer your sacrifices to me—your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats, and your cattle. Build my altar wherever I cause my name to be remembered, and I will come to you and bless you.).

It kept standing out to me how in the Old Testament Israel continued to see God perform miracles... He provided manna, and then shortly thereafter they started grumbling and complaining again worried about water.  Had they forgotten the God who had miraculously provided them bread to eat each and every day?  Then He provided water from a rock, and later Israel grumbled about no meat.  Then he provided quail.  This is the same God whom Israel had seen send locusts and plagues upon Egypt to deliver Israel from them.  The same God they watched part the Red Sea.  The same God who guided them in a cloud by day, and fire by night.  How faithless do we find the people of Israel to have been?  We are shocked that despite witnessing His continued faithfulness, provision, and miracles that they still lacked faith, still grumbled, and were still so quick to turn astray.

I would argue that we struggle with the same sin today.  That God has revealed Himself to each of us at times, capturing our attention and causing us to know Him in a whole new way, but then, days, weeks, months and years later we grow out of touch with His goodness.  We forget the encounter and loose the power that came with the testimony of it.

In 2012 I came to know God in a bunch of new ways by experience.  I came to know Him as Healer, not just through the accounts in Scripture, but by Him working through me and Jeremy to physically and emotionally heal others of their infirmities (see our testimony page for some of these accounts).  I came to know Him as Provider in a whole new way when we stepped out in faith, when it made no sense, and started a ministry and watched Him continue to meet each physical, financial, and service need that we had as they arose.  As time passes on it’s easy to lose touch with the details and specifics of each event/ encounter.  As time goes on it’s easy to lose touch with just how miraculous each of these were.  As time goes on I lose some of the awe and wonder that originally went with each of these events/ accounts.  And as I hear Him continue to say “remember” I’m grateful to have a place to share them all here, to activate faith in others, but also for my own reference to come back to and to serve as an altar to the one true God, reminding me, and generations to come of these marvelous things He is doing, and will do again.

So friend, take some time to remember what He has done in and through you.  Build an altar to Him in your heart so that you will never forget.  Tell someone about it so that they may be inspired and encouraged as well.  Celebrate each and every encounter, over and over again.

Shannon