Friday, January 13, 2012

What God Remembers

Have you ever thought: What is God thinking?
Silly, but I like to think about things like that and what matters to God.
 I like to think about what is on God's mind and
what are the things that are important enough for Him to remember.

I can find two things that God remembers. The first thing that He always remembers is us. He's always thinking about us. He never, not for one moment forgets us. He always remembers us. (That's a crazy thought isn't it? I mean there are so many of us down here and yet somehow He never skips a beat, never gets drowsy, never lets His mind wander and forgets about us). We are all He thinks about!

How do I know? Well, scripture says that we are the apple of his eye.  I looked up the meaning of the phrase on what 'the apple of my eye' could mean. Wikipedia says, "Something, but usually someone, that you cherish above all others. "My husband said he thinks it means, "The object of one's affection." And I've heard it said to mean, "beloved."  Which means-God says WE are cherished by Him above all others. WE are the object of His affection. WE are His beloved.

A few years ago I was praying with my prayer partner, a friend, when I began to cry. Inside my heart I thought, "Has God forgotten me?  My heart is breaking. Is He there?" I remained silent, but heard my friend say, "God is not unaware."  She said nothing else. That's all I needed to hear. God IS aware. That really struck me. It still strikes me today every time I say it.  God IS aware of what is going on in my life.  He knows and He has a plan. He's thinking about me. He remembers me. He may seem silent at times, but I believe He waits on timing and our surrendered will to act.

What God remembers could be said another way too- what God does not forget. I didn't know too many scriptures when my family tried, for the first time, to disown me. It was 1991. My mother stood by and watched as her daughters, my sisters, tied me up. She looked on as they threw me into the trunk of their car. She was a part of  the plan to abandon me to the streets. God saw. God knew. God was thinking of me. God remembered me. God had a plan. Who I am that God would rescue me? How did He see all that happened? (Golly, so many more horrible things were probably going on at the same time to other people around the world and yet He was thinking of me and had a plan to rescue me!) And He did.

A few weeks after the above tragedy occurred I came across the scripture in Isaiah 49:15

"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
 Though she may forget, I will not forget you!" 

Amazing isn't it? God remembers me. God remembers you. No matter who forgets us or abandons us in this life; mother, father, sister, brother, husband, wife, family, friends, pastor, neighbors, church family, or even your boss, God will not abandon us. He will not forget us- ever.

It really humbles me to think that God thinks about me. That God knows me. That God remembers me. A little nobody from no where. With all the people in this world suffering much more horribly than me. People so much more worse off than me. He remembers me. But really, how could He forget us when He says: 

"See, I have engraved you on the palms on my hands..." (Isaiah 49: 16)

The second thing that I have found that God remembers are His promises to us. (It's hard for me to believe or really imagine someone keeping their promise, but God is not people.)

 In 1 Chronicles 16:14 it says,
"He remembers his covenant forever,
the promise He made, for a thousand generations."

 The Bible speaks many times on how God will remember the promises He has made-for example: Every time we see a rainbow we know that God has promised to never flood the world again. "And God said, "this is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I will have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between  me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life." (Genesis 9:12- 16)

Another amazing promise God has kept is the one of sending us the Savior of the world and He did it just as He said He would.- Isaiah 53: 1-5:8  "He grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him....Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."

So, as I wrote in 'Let bygones be Remembered'
 God has asked us to remember Him and His goodness,
 but that's not all,
 know that God remembers you!

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