For my birthday this year, my daughter gave me a gift that keeps on giving. She signed me up for a web-site called “Storyworth”. It’s a process where they send you a question once a week asking about your life and history. This has been a fascinating process as it has caused me to recount many of the events of my life in a way that reflects God’s workings in my life. I am basically writing my memoirs for my family and especially my grandparents. But it reminds me of the scripture Deuteronomy 6:5-7 (ESV)
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
There is an important element of the Christian walk that I believe we’ve lost in our culture; talking about our own experience with the faithfulness of God to our children and grandchildren. It seems we get so focused on the here and now that we forget that God’s goodness is to 1000 generations.
As I was remembering an incident that happened during my first year of Bible College which was in Three Hills, Alberta, Canada. I had gone there right after high school. It was 2700 miles away from Ontario and my first time away from my home. I was so homesick. I survived the year but decided not to go back after my first year. I had told the Lord during that year that one of the desires of my heart was to go to Germany, learn German and play the bass guitar. Why those three? I have no idea, especially since I was a lousy French student in high school.
The year I stayed home was very difficult for me and very dry spiritually. I worked in business for a friend of our family’s but in my heart, I knew the Lord hadn’t called me to business. I remember going for a walk one night after a church youth meeting and just rededicating my life to serve the Lord.
Well seven months later after a series of events, I found myself in Germany working with a youth/music ministry. The Lord had changed the course of my life which would eventually lead me to my wife and eventual move to the United States and finishing my undergraduate degree and beginning Cornerstone after an incredible encounter with Holy Spirit. Certainly, the Lord gave me the desires of my heart. Psalm 37:4-5 (ESV)
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.
It is no wonder the Lord continued to exhort the Israelites to set up memorials to remember the goodness and faithfulness of God. Two portions that charged the Israelite to remember God’s faithfulness is Deuteronomy 8-11 and Joshua 23. Here is an excerpt from Deuteronomy 8:11-20 (ESV)
“Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.”
Remembering the Lord faithfulness in the past gives us confidence for the future. Even when things look bleak as they did for me in 1975-1976, God was working behind the scenes to put all the details together for my future. He does that for every one of His followers because of His great mercy and love. Here is a great verse to meditate on this week; Jeremiah 29:11-13 (ESV)
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare[a] and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
During that tough season, He gave me Jeremiah 33:3 as a verse to lean into for the rest of my life; it says;
“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”
Over the years I’ve done a lot of calling to the Lord, especially when the future wasn’t too clear. He has never failed me yet. He has always shown the way! He is so good!!