Remembering to Remember

Since before the dawn of time, our God has never ceased to be completely holy in all His works.

He is a great God - full of splendor, majesty, and wonders. A beautiful sunset, the crashing of waves against a powdery-white beach, spring flowers blooming in vibrant colors: these are just the fringes of His glory.

He is holy, unchanging, perfect in all His ways, and He cannot be in the presence of sin.

Yet God the Son stooped down from time and space, took on our human form, breathed our dust, and willingly sacrificed Himself in order to pay for our sins and bring us back to Him.

With such a great God as this:

How could we ever doubt His love and care for us?

How could we ever rob Him of glory and give it to another?

How could we ever hurt one another?

And yet, we do.

We too, like the Sanhedrin of Stephen’s day, can become hard-hearted towards the things of God.

We forget to remember.

As Stephen stood before these men - men whom he regarded as “brothers and fathers” - he began to tell a story of their family’s history. A nail-biting, gut-wrenching, spectacular story. And at its very center was the faithfulness of the God of Israel.

Stephen recounted the events of God revealing Himself to Abraham, promising him descendants that would outnumber the stars in the sky; promising to guide him to the Promised Land; and promising to never leave His side.

Stephen told the story of Joseph, whom God sovereignly chose to experience hatred, rejection, loneliness, and deceit so that the family line of the coming Savior would be preserved.

Stephen went on to describe the life of Moses, the Israelites in slavery, and God’s miraculous rescue from Egypt. He depicted the building of the Tabernacle, the conquest of Canaan, and the construction of Solomon’s Temple.

Each event orchestrated by a faithful God, pursuing the people who would one day reject him.

And as Stephen finished their family’s tale, he switched from story-teller to prophet:

“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.” Acts 7:51

God, in His mercy and kindness repeatedly showed up for His people in big, powerful ways. And yet, time after time, they rejected that grace.

And as Stephen boldly pointed out, his accusers were no different from their ancestors. They resisted the Holy Spirit, broke the Law of Moses, and persecuted those who prophesied “the coming of the Righteous One.” While they may have known all the facts of their family tree, they had forgotten the God who had designed it.

Their forgetting had caused them to be hard-hearted toward the God who loved them and gave Himself for them.

It is easy to read about this power-hungry, murderous group of spiritual leaders and shake our heads in disbelief. After all, we have never condemned anyone to death by stoning!

But if we search our hearts deep enough, we will find that we are not as different from the Sanhedrin as we would like to think. We too love to go our own way, build up our own idols, stay in control, and be our own God.

How do we keep from being “a stiff-necked people” who reject God, His will, and His leading in our lives?

We remember.

We can look in His Word and remember who God is and what He has done.

We can remember the beautiful, bloody cross, and pour out our praise to the Lamb who was slain.

We can remember the selfless love of Jesus - and then love our neighbor in the same way.

When we are angry at a loved one, and tempted to hold back our forgiveness, we can remember the great debt that was forgiven us.

When we feel ourselves pulled by the lure of sin, we can remember that nothing we could desire compares with the joy and beauty of the Lord.

When we feel lonely or afraid, or begin to wonder if God really cares about us, we can meditate on His promises that He will never leave us or forsake us.

Are there ways you have become hard-hearted? Where are you struggling to trust or delight in God? What truths from His word do you need to rehearse to yourself today?

God loves to answer the prayers of His children and will delight to help us remember to remember.

-Becky Groppel