“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
A full grown elephant can weigh over 10,000 lbs. and can pull up to 9 tons. And yet this mighty animal can be held in place with a rope and a small wooden stake in the ground. How is that possible?
When the elephant is young, the trainer stakes him to the ground with the small wooden stake and ties a rope from the stake to the elephant’s leg. As a small elephant it pulls and pulls and pulls until it finally gives up. It never pulls on the stake again, because it remembers that it is futile. Our memories have the power to hold us in place, for good or for bad. Memory is that powerful.
Remember
If you asked me to sum up the message of the entire Bible in one word, that word might be remember. While the Bible tells us the story of creation, of the nation of Israel, of the Messiah, of how to live, how to have faith, the importance of faith, how to experience and share love, hope, joy, etc., the common message that runs through it all is “remember”. We humans are prone to forgetfulness. And God knows it. And the key to successfully walking with God our entire life, finishing strong in the faith and passing our faith on to the next generation, is to remember.
This last verse of the Deuteronomy 6 passage has to do with setting up reminders for ourselves so that whether we are coming or going, we are reminded of God, of God’s word, of “The Word of God” Jesus, that we belong to Him, etc. As we leave our house and pass by our gate, God wants us to put His word there on the gate as a reminder to us as we go out into our day. And when we come home, God wants us to have His word written on the doorpost of our house as well, again, to remind us of Him, of His word, of the “Word” of God, Jesus Christ, as we enter our home at the end of the day. God wants us to remind ourselves that we are His, when we go out into the world each day, and when we come to our families at the end of each day. What are some of the things God wants us to remember?
Love God
Firstly, we are to remember God, that He exists, that He loves us, and that we are commanded to love Him. This is the first and foremost of the commandments. It is the greatest commandment. To love God. (Matthew 22:36-40) We are to remember who God is, Just how big He is, His omnipresence, His omniscience, etc. We are to remember that we are God’s workmanship – it is He that is working in us (Philippians 2:13), and that He finishes what He starts (Philippians 1:6). We are to remember that He called us, chose us from the beginning of time to be His sons. (Ephesians 1:5) It is no accident that we believe in Him. And we are to remember that He wants us to love Him with all of our heart, soul and might (Deuteronomy 6:5) We are to remember that Jesus came and lived a perfect life for us, gave Himself for us on the cross, rose again on the third day, and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father, where He makes intercession for us. (2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 2:20; Romans 8:34; 1 John 2:2; 1 Peter 3:18; John 10:11-18)
Love Others
We are to remember the second greatest commandment, “To love others as ourselves”. (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:36-40; 1 John 3:16; Philippians 2:1-8) This is probably the second most important thing for us to remember. Imagine if we had a pair of glasses that every time we failed to love someone, a red light went off in the top corner of the glasses to remind us to love others, and when we loved someone, a green light went off in the same location, rewarding us for loving them. I could use a pair of glasses like that. That is in essence what God is telling us to do, to set up reminders to help us live out His word on a daily basis, to love others on a daily basis.
God’s Commandments
Remembering God’s commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) and remembering to keep them is another thing to add to this discussion. When Jesus was among us, He said that “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15) One of the ways we know that we love God is that we desire to keep His commandments out of gratitude for what Christ has done for us. It is as though we owed the IRS $5 million dollars in back taxes plus penalties, interest, and jail time, and a complete stranger stepped forward and had his son pay it all for us, and even serve the jail time for us. We would be forever grateful to this person, and to his son……especially to his son. Jesus has done much more for us, and nothing He asks of us is too much. Remember the story of Simon and the prostitute. (Luke 7:36-50) She loved much because she realized the depth of her depravity, how much she had been forgiven, how much we have all been forgiven. She was truly repentant.
Who God Says We Are (in Christ)
Another good thing for us to remember is called positional truth. There are many good books and websites on this topic for use in further study. In essence, positional truth is the title given to the things that are now true of us because we are in Christ. These things are true of us the second we are born again, and they never go away, they are permanently true forever, regardless of how we feel, how well we live out our lives as followers of Christ, etc. Some of these truths include:
- We have died and our life is hidden with God in Christ. (Colossians 3:3)
- We have been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)
- We are sealed with the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 1:13-14; Acts 2:38)
- Our sins are forgiven. (1 John 1:9; Colossians 1:13-14)
- We have eternal life. (Romans 6:23; John 3:16)
I could go on and on listing the things that are true of us now because we are in Christ. One Bible scholar, Arnold Fruchtenbaum, has listed 33 positional truths and has a short dissertation on this topic available online at the ariel.org website. Why do we need to remember the positional truth about us?
We forget it because we are still living in “this body of sin and death” as Paul called our condition. We forget that in Christ we are forgiven, have all things, can do all things, bear all things, hope all things. We forget that God is at work in us now and will finish the work that He started in us. We forget that we are saved not because of anything we have done, but because of what Christ has done for us. We merely entered into that salvation when we believed. We need to remember these things, because many times we don’t feel like they are true of us, and it comes down to whether we are going to believe our feelings or believe God and what He says about us? We must believe what God says about us more than we believe what we think or feel. This is at the core of trusting God.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3:5-6
We must trust what God says in His word more than we trust in our own understanding. Our minds are finite, limited, bound by space and time. We are only here for a very short period of time. It has been said our life is like a vapor, a puff of smoke then we are gone. But God is eternal, has unlimited knowledge, knows all things, sees all things, understands all things. When we are struggling with life’s issues, sometimes it is best to simply accept that we do not understand something yet, and we may never understand it, but we know that if we are God’s son, then He will ultimately cause all things to work together for good. (Romans 8:28)
Four Questions and their Answers
Another thing to remember are the four questions people often ask about life and God, and their answers. They are:
- What does God want? Answer: Faith. (Hebrews 11:6)
- What does God want me to be? Answer: A blessing. (Luke 10:30-37)
- What does God want me to do? Answer: Good works. (Ephesians 2:20)
- What does God want me to have? Answer: Joy. (John 15:11)
Faith in God
Faith in God is the beginning of life, true life (Ephesians 2:1-9), it is the beginning of our eternal life with Him (John 3:16, John 17:3), and it is the beginning of wisdom in our life here on earth (Proverbs 1:7). God wants us to have faith in Him, and He wants us to remember this. In addition to just pure faith, God includes hope and love. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul writes that of these three, faith, hope, and love, love is the greatest, the highest form of faith. Our faith should lead to being men and women filled with hope, hope for the future. We should live hopeful lives. And most importantly our faith is to be characterized by love. Love for God and love for others. If we do not have a loving faith, we are like a lousy rock band that is playing out of tune and off beat through monster speakers – extremely painful to be around. Faith without love is so bad that it may be better not to have faith at all if you do not have love. But faith with love is the ultimate, and that is how God wants us to live our lives. God wants us to remember this, every day, as we go out into the world and as we come home to our families.
Be a Blessing
God wants us to be a blessing to others. Our work should be a blessing in some way to the people that we serve. It should promote human flourishing. We should be a blessing to our parents, our brothers, and our sisters. We should be a blessing to our friends and co-workers. We should be a blessing to complete strangers. Jesus even calls us to be a blessing to our enemies. Like the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”, the world should be a better place because we lived. God wants us to be a blessing. God wants us to remember that.
Do Good Works
Good works are also something God wants us to remember to do. Often we are faced with a fork in the road. We can do the selfish thing, or we can do the thing that would fall into the good works category. Whether it is giving of our time, our money, our skills, etc., good works will cost us. It requires some form of sacrifice on our part. Often it is our good works that lead to us being a blessing. And we know that God created us to do good works. (Ephesians 2:10) It is our purpose, why He made us, why He called us. Just like a shovel is made to dig in the earth, we were made to do good works while on the earth. God wants us to remember that.
Joy
God wants us to remember to have joy in our life. This is so important to Him, that when He was here he actually prayed three times that our joy would be maxed out:
These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you,
and that your joy may be made full.
John 15:11
God wants His joy to be maximized in our lives, and in the lives of the people around us. We tend to forget this sometimes, and so we need to remember it. And of course the devil’s goal is to steal our joy, so we have to always be on the lookout for lions in the corners of our rooms, trying to rob us of God’s joy. Always remember that God wants us to have Joy.
God’s Call to Remembrance
There is so much more that God wants us to remember, that it is no wonder that throughout the Bible God tells the Israelites and us to “remember”. Throughout the Old Testament God had the Jews pile stones in certain places to remember something He did there. (Joshua 4:1-7). God also has appointed the festivals of Leviticus 23 as reminders. Passover is about remembering the Exodus, for example. The books of the prophets, the Psalms, and the Proverbs are all about remembering God in our daily life, remembering what He has done, remembering His wisdom. The pages of scripture are a call to remembrance. Then suddenly, the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us.
Jesus gave us parable after parable, performed signs and wonders, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind. He went to the cross bearing the penalty for our sins, and one of the last things He said before He went to the cross was, “do this in remembrance of Me,” referring to the bread and wine at His last Passover meal. Jesus was with His disciples at His last Passover, and he created communion as a reminder for us, for us to remember the sacrifice of His body and blood for the atonement of our sins. And in keeping with God’s use of stones as a way to remember things, Jesus is referred to throughout scripture as the “Chief Cornerstone, which the builders rejected”.
The Meaning of Life
One thing that remembering all of these things does for us is to remind us of what life is really about. We tend to get caught up in the here and now of everyday life, and forget that we are eternal beings, saved by God’s grace, etc. We forget who we are, and we start acting like heathens again. This happened to Israel throughout the stories in the Old Testament, and it happens to Christians every day. If we forget who we are, and begin to live like heathens again, we cease to be a blessing, we no longer do good works, we don’t live lives of loving faith, and so on. Rather than being a blessing, we can become a curse, often hurting the people around us. We are so forgetful that God says at a minimum He wants us to remember twice a day – on our way out into the world (upon thy gates), and on our way into our home (upon the doorpost of thy house). That is the minimum amount of reminding we need. More would probably be better, but two times a day at minimum. We are that forgetful.
This is a Big Deal
Remembering is a big deal to God. It is something that He really wants us to do. Not just kinda, but really, really, really remember Him and His Word to the best of our ability each day as we go out into the world to be with the people in our daily lives, and as we return into our homes to be with our family. That is what it means to put His words on the doorpost of our house and upon our gates. It means we are to remember.
What are You Going to Do
What are some things you can do to help you remember God and His word as you go out into the world each day? What are some things you can do to help you remember God and His word as you return home each day? What are some of the most important things you feel you need to remember each day at work? As you travel to work? In the grocery store? In restaurants? When traveling on airlines or transit? At sporting events? At children’s sporting events? In rush hour traffic when you are late? What are some of the most important things you feel you need to remember each day at home? With your wife? With your children? With your neighbors? With your free time? How can you remind yourself of these things each day. Develop a plan to put reminders out there in your world somehow, and try it for a week. With smart phones this may be really easy for us to do. This is an actual command from God to do this, so let’s be obedient and put those reminders out there, and see if it helps us during our day.
Lord God almighty, ruler of heaven and the earth, creator and sustainer of life, our Father, we come before you in Jesus name, and ask that you would help us to remember. To remember you. To remember that You love us. To remember to love You. To remember Your Son, and all that He has done for us. To remember to love others, and to think of them and their needs at least as much as we think of ourselves. To remember who we are in Christ. To remember that what You say is true about us, regardless of how we feel or how successful we are at following You. Help us to remember what life is really about. What our life is really about. Show us ways to set up a pile of stones in our life as a reminder of these things. A pile of stones that is big enough that we cannot miss it, each day, as we go out into the world and as we return to our home. Something to remind us of you, twice a day. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
“Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build, and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied, then watch yourself, that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall fear only the Lord your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name. You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.”
Deuteronomy 6:10-15
“I shall remember the deeds of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work and muse on Your deeds.”
Psalm 77:11-12
“Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no delight in them”
Ecclesiastes 12:1
“And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.”
Luke 22:19-20
“Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:7-9
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
John 14:26
“I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your doings; I muse on the work of Your hands.”
Psalm 143:5
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
Exodus 20:8
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