Memory Faith?
“Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of My God.”- Revelation 3:2
I do not want to open an old wound but take a moment to reflect on a humiliating experience from your past. For me, one of these regrettable moments came in my early twenties, as I was visiting my family outside of Portland. On one day my younger brother and sisters wanted to go skiing. This sounded like an opportunity to relive one of my favorite childhood memories. My memory informed me that I was a pretty good skier as a child, but soon after getting onto the slopes (for the first time in over a decade), I soon found myself in over my skis and far too often not upright on them! After about two humiliating runs and countless wipe outs, I decided to retire to the lodge for the day.
Again, this exercise was not meant to simply rehash things you have been trying to forget, but to release greater focus, energy, and possibility to your life and faith! In Philippians 3:13-14 the apostle Paul declares, “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” As we move further into 2020, this Year of Beautiful Restoration, the Holy Spirit has been speaking to my heart that we cannot live in the PAST MEMORIES of faith, but to advance forward in faith we need FRESH ACTIVITIES! There is nothing wrong about recalling God’s faithfulness and wonders from days of old. But we are not meant to rely on them to be the resource that brings us out of today’s storm, that guides us on our current path, that answers our present need, or that delivers victory for our next battle.
Even in the above words of Jesus, to one of the churches in Revelation, He addresses and diagnoses how their inactivity was leading to an insufficiency of the results God wants to bring our way and have us walk in. Let’s not just have a memory of a TESTIMONY that took place four years or four decades ago…but let’s have an activity of seeing God move in our midst and our being used for His purposes; Let’s not just have a memory of BIBLE VERSES, where we can quote a Scripture on peace…but let’s allow our daily times in God’s Word to deposit true peace for what causing unrest; Let’s not just have a memory of SERVING at church or GOING on mission trips, where we once helped the church through a season…but let us find a place to make a difference in this generation and with today’s needs.
God is calling each of us to live out a true life, a today faith that renews us, reaches many, and releases blessings!