DON'T FORGET

DON'T FORGET

One of the things that plagues many older Americans is forgetfulness. We tend blame it on age. I hang out with a fair amount of senior citizens because of where God has placed us at America's KESWICK. Forgetfulness is an on-going problem.

But "forgetfulness" seems to be something we deal with since early childhood. Raising Zach has been fun even at this age, but as we do through these pre-teen years with him and still have some discipline issues to deal with (do they ever go away?) he will often say, "I forgot!" We scratch our heads as parents and say, "How can you forget? We just talked about this yesterday!"

The children of Israel, like you and me if we're honest, struggled with forgetfulness. They witnessed so many miracles, signs and wonders under the leadership of Moses and yet how quickly they forgot what God did for them. God would perform a miracle that would astound them, and then so quickly they went back into their sinful ways.

In Psalm 106 this morning, just in the space of several verses I read:

106:13 -- They QUICKLY forgot His Works
106:13 -- They forgot God their Savior who had done great things . . .
106:24 -- They did not believe His Word but grumbled in their tents . . .
106:25 -- They did not listen to the voice of the Lord . . .
106:32 -- They provoked Him to wrath . . .

This is certainly a "text that preaches" because we too so often fall into this pattern, don't we? We see God's amazing miracles. We are astounded and blessed, and then so quickly forget about it. Sometimes I find myself scratching my head when I am facing a "mountain" or a wall. How will we ever make it through? I have seen God do so many amazing things since coming to America's KESWICK, and yet at times it is like my ADD kicks in big-time and I forget that HE IS ABLE.

When we allow ourselves to wallow in unbelief it leads to a cynical spirit which then opens the door for us to be grumblers and complainers. We grumble at work. We grumble at church. We grumble at home. As a leader, I get discouraged sometimes when the "natives" start grumbling. Then I remember poor Moses -- 3 million of them! Wow!

Forgetfulness leads to unbelief. Unbelief unchecked turns to cynicalness which leads to a grumbling heart. But if we allow it to grow and fester, we close our ears to the voice of God. We ignore the promptings of His still, small voice. We read the Word, and yet ignore what He is saying. He speaks -- but we don't even hear.

The Lord got frustrated with the people. He was determined to wipe them out. But a man named Phineas stood up and "interposed" -- came between. And it says in Psalm 106:30 -- "And so the plague was stayed!" You can be a Phineas today -- at work -- at church -- at home! Maybe it means even being a Phineas in your own life. You can stop the cycle. We'll talk about that tomorrow.

Lord, help us to be "remembers" today instead of forgetters.

Jennifer Sands continues to share lessons learned after the tragedy of 9/11 on today's edition of Keswick Today. Listen to the broadcast right from our home page: www.americaskeswick.org