Don’t Forget

At one of my Bible studies, recently, someone used the phrase, “Don’t look back at Egypt”. At the time, I was moved by this because it was referring to how after the Israelites left Egypt they kept looking back and saying “Remember how good we had it? Remember the food and the comfort?”. But they had forgotten that they were in SLAVERY. That they were bound under Pharaoh in a land and a life with no opportunity to freely serve and worship their God. How ungrateful were they?! How ungrateful am I?

I thought about how often I look back on the things of the past and long for them, thinking about how good those times were, and how happy I was, or how easy my life was.

I was reminded of this scrolling past the many New Year’s posts yesterday about leaving 2017 behind and forgetting the past and looking forward to what is to come. And, to some degree, this is what God asks us to do. He tells us in Isaiah 43:18-19 to “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

God is renewing us day by day (1 Corinthians 4:16) and His mercies are new each morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). We don’t need to look back on our past failures, and he does not want us to long for a life that is past, but to be present with Him in the here and now and be perceptive to what he is doing.

But I don’t believe that he wants us to forget everything.

One of the many things that Israelites failed at (and we do, too, I am afraid), was remembering the incredible things that God had done for them. How he brought down miracles to redeem them from slavery, how he made the impossible possible, how he fed and provided water for them in the midst of the desert. How he led them where they needed to go with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. How he was with them every single step of the way.

And this, my friends, is what I urge us to not forget about and leave behind in 2017. What did God do? Where did he show up? How did he show you that he was with you every step of the way?

Do not dwell on the past, but cling tightly to the small whispers and big nudges from God so that when he does them again in 2018, you will be able to see them with clearer, wiser eyes.