14/08/2016
AN URGENT CALL TO REMEMBER THE LORD
Deuteronomy 8:18; Psalm 63:6; 12:1
God created everyone with the ability to remember. Success, victory, faith, steadfastness or otherwise depends on one’s ability or failure to remember. Regardless of age, gender, social or marital status, ability to remember has present, continual and eternal importance. The failure of some intelligent students in examinations is due to forgetfulness of salient things. Increasing cases of broken homes are traceable to forgetfulness of marriage vows. People who regularly attend church services but are not converted and believers who fall into temptations often forget God’s word they have heard or read. Ineffectiveness in ministry results from inability to recall biblical principles learnt from different leadership forums, while people fail to receive needed miracles during gospel revivals for forgetting God’s promises they ought to claim by faith. Even in secular endeavours, many people fail woefully because they keep forgetting to apply the principles of success they learnt to real life situations.Those who are not as strong and knowledgeable as others but have ability to remember and apply scriptural principles in taking decisions at critical times succeed in life.
The secret of divine touch and transformation lies inone’s ability to remember and apply scriptural principles. The rich man prayed in hell but was told to remember he lived without God. To avoid recalling and being haunted throughout eternity by thoughts of a missed opportunity to repent and live by His word, we are called to “remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth...” and to “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth”. To be saved, redeemed and healed, we must remember the Lord as our Saviour, Redeemer, Healer, Deliverer and Defender and His promises on salvation, redemption, healing, deliverance and protection to claim in prayer. To read the Bible during the day and run to shrines of agents of Satan in the night for protection is proof of forgetting Jesus as our Lord and Master, the controller of our lives and revealler of pitfalls and right paths to follow. Since Christ is our Sanctifier, Refiner and Purifier, it is unwise, dangerous and disadvantageous to retain the adamic nature while we continue to hear, read, sing and preach His word. While there is internal, external and eternal disadvantage of forgetting His word, promise, power, wonders, warnings, love and faithfulness, remembering them is the secret of success, victory, spiritual restoration, renewal and refreshment.
- THE REMEMBRANCE OF THE LORD’S FAITHFULNESS
Numbers 15:40,41; 23:19,20; Deuteronomy 7:6,9; Psalms 89:34; 119:89; Matthew 24:35
God is faithful; He fulfils His promises when we claim them in prayer. In view of His willingness to fulfil His promise, the Scripture calls us to “remember...and be holy unto [our] God”.To be holy, we must remember He demands and accomplishes it by the power in Christ’s blood. He means whatever He says, and says whatever He will do. “God is not a man, that he should lie... hath he said, and shall he not do it?” Being faithful, He can and will fulfil His promises of a better, richer, higher, deeper and bigger life we claim through prayer. But this requires that we do not separate prayer from preaching or prioritize prayer above the word of God. Prayers that receive divine intervention are based on His word and promises. Rather than think of Satan’s activities and confess the possibility of being affected by them, believers need to always recall God’s promises on protection, preservation, provision and divine presence.
Saved, sanctified and set apart for God’s holy use, believers are privileged to sit with Christ in heavenly places. As such, they do not degrade themselves by mingling with the ungodly but remember to keep God’s word at home and at work, knowing that “the faithful God... keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations”. We must not remember the things that hurt, disturb, detract, weaken and distress but those that heal and establish us; we must
remember God’s love, mercy, plan, provision, salvation, unfailing promises, power and presence that grant all that we need in life and hereafter; remember to worship, obey, return to, serve and honour His name; to honour Him above spouse, parents and any highly respected person in our lives or society; to yield our heart unreservedly to Him and obey all His commands. Being faithful, God does not “alter” the promises that He has made. And we cannot modify or edit His word on earth because it is “settled in heaven” forever. His attribute of faithfulness demands that He fulfils His threat of punishing unrepentant sinners and promise of blessing His obedient children.
2. THE REGRET OF LAMENTABLE FORGETFULNESS
Psalms 50:16-22; 19:17
People regret in life and eternity for forgetting things they need to remember most at critical times. Such people make reading the Bible, observance of quiet time, family devotion and prayer a ritual that has no bearing in their daily living. When confronted with temptations, challenges and difficulties at home or place of work, they forget their salvation, consecration, vows to the Lord and the promises He has made to them. Thus, they live a life that is bereft of His grace and power, and shall regret their forgetfulness like Lot’s wife who saw and heard the angels’ instruction to escape but perished for forgetting those words afterwards. People who forget the Word of God that brings faith, salvation and life have no future with Him.
Forgetfulness of the Healer by the sick or diseased, Helper by the helpless, Source of supply by the wretched, Saviour by the perishing sinner, Deliverer by the oppressed, and Giver of life by the dying has grave consequences. Such will miss salvation, forfeit eternal life, lose blessings, face avoidable dangers in life and suffer eternal damnation in hell. As believers, we must resolve not to forget our Lord, Saviour, Healer, Deliverer and Partner and His Word. Some sinners and evil doers who forget that judgment day will soon come preach against sin but live in secret adultery, fornication, stealing, etc. Some parents warn their wards against sexual immorality but live in secret infidelity; some pastors also secretly commit the sins they discipline their members for. Secret sinners think that God is blind, does not hear or keep record of their evil deeds. He expects such people who forget Him to repent and be saved so that they will not be “turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17). He expects them to remember His promise to forgive the penitent and His warning to judge the unrepentant, and promptly respond by forsaking sin, darkness, evil, and pray to Him for mercy and salvation.
3. THE RESPONSE OF LOYAL FOLLOWERS
Psalm 22:27; 103:1-3; 105:5; 2 Timothy 2:7,8
There is an urgent call to all people all over the world to “remember” Christ’s sacrifice for sin and willingness to save whosoever calls upon His name. There is also an urgent call to respond by forsaking sin and turning “unto the Lord” for salvation. It is important for the penitent to remember that God forgives “ALL” iniquities and to claim this promise in prayer; He also heals “ALL” diseases. Besides, we are to “Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth”. Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary is the marvellous work through which He procured salvation and healing for everyone. Recalling His marvellous works of redemption, healing and deliverance during His earthly ministry: how He delivered the oppressed, opened blind eyes, cleansed the lepers, healed the lame, raised the dead to life, cured the insane and His power to do the same today will boost our faith. It is not enough to hear or read His Word; we must “consider” them by meditating and internalizing them, recall and claim the benefits in payer. We must “Remember that Jesus Christ” is the only Saviour, Sanctifier, Baptiser, Healer and Deliverer who will save the sinner who turns away from sin, Satan, idol worship, magic, occultism and receive Him as Lord and Saviour. He still answers, saves, heals, delivers, sanctifies, empowers, enriches and renews all earnest seekers today.
GHS: 246, 187 & 226