The Remedy Is To Remember

“But our ancestors were proud and stubborn, and they paid no attention to your commands. They refused to obey and did not remember the miracles you had done for them. Instead, they became stubborn and appointed a leader to take them back to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love. You did not abandon them, even when they made an idol shaped like a calf and said, ‘This is your god who brought you out of Egypt!’ They committed terrible blasphemies. [Nehemiah 9.16-18]

There are two main things here that Israel did that displeased God:

1. They refused to obey, and,
2. They did not remember the miracles done for them

The first point above is easy enough to grasp. Disobedience has and always will be a problem. Israel disobeyed regularly and it cost them dearly.

But the second point above is just as significant as the first. They forgot the miracles done for them. This particularly stands out to me today. It seems that forgetting the miracles is tied closely to disobedience. And it seems that disobedience is closely tied to forgetting the miracles.

Pride causes us to forget the miracles God has done in our lives. Pride ignores and excludes God's role in our victories and makes us gods unto ourselves.

I think I struggle with forgetting God's miracles a great deal. My mind finds reasonable explanations for almost everything. It is a constant battle to remember the miracles I have seen, not to mention the miracles Jesus is on record of having performed. I know this is not good, but I find everything around me so worldly and scientific that God has little to no credit any more. It makes genuine faith a real struggle.

The remedy is to remember.

Father, help us to remember all that You have done. Help us to take regular inventory of the miracles that are Yours - whether to us directly or recorded in the Bible.