I Can Never Forget

 "None of us will ever forget this day" were part of the final words of president George W. Bush in his  address to America the night of the 9-11 attack in 2001. Today, at lunch time, I was listening to the beautiful rendition of "my tribute (to God be the glory)" by Natalie Grant and I couldn't stop thinking about the phrase "to God be the glory for the things he has done". I can never forget how good God has been to me. I can never forget His walking with me despite the bad news I was given a year and a half ago, when I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. I can simply not forget "the things He has done".

This has been a year of up and downs, pandemic lows and pandemic highs, low moods and high moods, and a plethora of issues that affected each one of our lives at different levels.In this year's first six months, some of us had a little ray of hope that this terrible pandemic was coming to an end but, when winter started, that did not seem to be the case. While this array of things  have been life - affecting and extremely bothersome, we can never forget the "things He has done". God loves His children and what He allows in their path of life happens for a reason.

Today, the last day of the year, is a good day to remember the things God has done for us. Today is a day to reflect on the goodness of God. Today is a day to give Him glory. This reminds me of Psalm 77:11-12 when David says:"I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds. David mentions three key words in these verses: Remember, ponder and meditate.

I. Remember.

David is encouraging us to remember the things God has done in the past for us that have impacted our lives in a marvelous way. He calls them "deeds" and the "wonders of old". How easy is to forget the good things the Lord has done for us and how quickly we are to remember the things that didn't go our way. We can see this type of attitude in David's statement in Psalm 77:4: " You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak". However, remembering the good things from the past will give us peace and certainty that God can do it again if it is in His will to do so. It's good to remember the past, but the focus should be on God's deeds and wonders, not our failures or past mistakes. 

II. Ponder 

The word ponder means "to meditate, to study, to murmur (Hebrew root word) and that's why a better translation from the Hebrew would be: "I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will meditate on all your work, and talk about your mighty deeds". We must study the great deeds God has done in our lives. We must meditate within our hearts the impact that His deeds have created in our lives in order to bless us and equip us "until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ". (Ephesians 4:13). We ponder because we want to know God more. We want to gain more intimacy with Him. We want to attain an undescribable closeness with Him. 

III. Talk.

We need to become God promoters. We need to talk about the great things He has done in our lives. We need to tell people about His mighty deeds. We need to make our God known. He is worthy of our sharing Him. He is worthy of our praise. He is worthy of our love. The God of heavens, as Ezra calls him, need to be known by all the nations of this world. That's part of our job!

We cannot forget. We can never ever forget the great things He has done because He is our Mighty Tower, He is our Fortress, He is the help we need. Promote your God! Don't be afraid of it! Remember these words and have a blessed, joy-filled, love-packed, happy new year!