Have you ever noticed how easy it is to slip into spiritual amnesia? It happens so subtly that we don’t even think about it. When things are going well, we rarely think of God’s provision. It is not until we run into difficulty that we turn to God and ask for help. And when we do turn to Him for help, we do so in desperation and panic – as if He has never been there to provide for us in the past.
Spiritual amnesia is the subtle forgetting of God’s continual provision. It is normal because it is human, but it is not what God wants for us and it is certainly not what He deserves from us.
For many, many years I have used a podcast prayer and devotional tool called, Pray As You Go. Each offering is about 12 minutes long which gives me time to listen and pray as I make my way to the office each morning. Today’s reading came from Deuteronomy 4. In the passage, Moses tells the children of Israel to pay attention to the commandments that God has given them. He encourages them to remember them and teach them to their children. And then he says something that really struck me in verse 9:
Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live.
Do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart. He is reminding the children of Israel (and us) that we must be diligent to remember how God interacts in our lives every day. Moses cautions us that it is easy to let these things “fade from your heart.”
In the closing moments of the prayer time today, the comment was made that we should “widen our vision.” It is so easy for us to have a myopic view of our circumstances and see only what is right in front of us – forgetting how God provided just yesterday.
So today, remember how God has provided for you in the past. Set those memories in stone so that the next time you feel anxious, you can look to the past faithfulness of God and be encouraged that He will show up again.
Be blessed today!
Thanks for this. I am going to try to download this podcast also. I’m not real techy, so I’ll have to work a bit to get this done.