My five-year-old just finished up her year of Pre-K in a rambunctious class that has brought us so much joy to hear about each night. She’s one of three girls in a class with eleven boys, and she often lists them off in order of her favorites.
One afternoon in the car, she announced that one of those boys was back after being sick. I asked her, “How did it make you feel when he came back?” expecting her to answer with a positive affirmation. “Well, I didn’t really remember him. Sometimes things just fly out of my brain.”
Together for nine months, sharing the carpet at naptime, giving her parents regular updates about this particular little guy…and she just forgot he existed when he was absent for a few days.
You can chalk that up, of course, to her five-year-old brain, neurons still wiring and firing in all kinds of new ways. But isn’t that very thing—the fear of being forgotten, of not mattering to someone we love—the fear that drives so many of our decisions in this life?
When Hannah prays for the Lord to open her womb in 1 Samuel 1, she asks for a legacy, a son, someone to carry her name and DNA and the way she laughs or wrinkles her nose forward into a future she would not know. We all long for legacy, to be known and seen and remembered. Hannah cried to God to “remember and not forget” her, a refrain we still whisper in our hearts today.
Thankfully, we are part of a much larger story, an epic account from creation to restoration, written by our God and secured by His Son. Our lives are not just a fleeting moment, but they are ordained for us (Psalm 139:16). Our future hope, and all its glory, are bound up in the person and work of Christ.
We don’t have to worry about being forgotten. We don’t have to worry about not being good enough to remember or having accomplished enough, earned enough, or produced enough. There is no “enough” threshold for the kingdom of heaven because we only need one thing: faith in Christ, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit. May we all endeavor to know Jesus so closely, to cherish Him so deeply, that our strivings for enough will cease.
Lifting you up in prayer to The Holy One Katie M. Much love and Hugs to you sweet sister.❣️
Some of today’s scriptures were painful and words failed me earlier.
Since then, I’ve changed the devo title slightly & personalized it in my mind to help me adjust my thinking- God Remembers My Future!
I also need to remember My Present and not miss out on what God is doing today while I’m looking at what “might” happen in the future.
When I let that sink in, it brings tears as I think of Him knowing tomorrow. And the day after. And the next day… LORD, I pray for guidance that only you can give through each of these days.
I connected with many of the comments, thoughts and situations shared today – TINA, KELLY (NEO), JULIA C, MERCY, ERB, MOLLY R, INDIANNA ELAINE. and others, thank you, sisters.
Praying through each request – RHONDA J, ADRIENNE, MARTHA HIX, THERESA, MIA FAITH, BD, ANGIE B, KATIE MCGEE, JM.
MARI V – praying for these new things to “stick” and for grace and understanding from your teacher. We all learn in different ways – I like to write things down so I can go over them – to keep them fresh, or repeat a few times.
CEE GEE – great song, and emphasis in what you said ❤️
TRACI GENDRON – praising the Lord for the good news!
Rhonda J, your comment: ” I think of the disciple that was under the tree, and God SAW HIM. The Chosen depicts it well! And Dallas Jenkins said that is how he felt before The Chosen when his other movie flopped. He was doing everything for the Lord, and still seemed to be failing…we just don’t see what is coming. As Joseph was in the pit, and then later in jail for years…He had no idea the goodness that was coming.” This is so helpful. I’ve had a season of great loss after following what God told me to do and this just encourages me. Reminds me that He sees and He knows. God said restoration is coming; I just need to remember that promise when things are hard. He has blessed me in many ways as well and I need to remember that too.
Kris- Loved your comment! I just went through this myself; super sick last week and felt alone. God brought people to me- I had soup to survive on all week and my sister sent medications that really kicked the rest of my illness. It was like a love note from God saying- ” I got you. You’re not alone. You are loved.”
Danielle B- Also dealing with shifting friendships. It does hurt but God has replaced the lost friendships with deeper meaniful ones. I love that He never leaves us empty and always provides better!
Tina- I also have this fear of rejection, so related to your comment! So sweet the story of your grand daughter still remembering you after all this time :)
@RHONDA J: your father’s wife’s daughter, does that make her your stepsister? I was going in a loop and I needed to ask you lol.
PRAYERS….
@EVERS: provision and opening of job offer, great peace of mind for your family.
@TERESA DONLEY: continued prayers for your memory, remembrance and trust in healing scriptures.
@ERB: amen. also loved Jane Eyre.
@RHONDA J: praying that your father’s wife’s daughter to be out of the bad entangled situation, and for her mom. Prayers that your teaching today goes great!
@MARTHA HIX: for Jesse’s recovery and his strong mind, lovely time in Waco.
@MIA FAITH: continued prayers over your family, children and grandchildren, and for a mighty deliverance over suicide, healing on all aspects.
@ADRIENNE: prayers for Sharon and Fred. Hope you are feeling better (mood).
@THERESA: Arlo’s surgery tomorrow to go well.
@ANGIE B: may your work situation go well, for peace and reconciliation in your thoughts and the environment.
@JULIA C: very blessed by you, thank you for your insights and prayer lists that I can join in daily.
@TRACI: yay…hallelujah!!!
@BD: wisdom and courage for decisions aligning with God’s will. Thankful for you.
Be blessed dear sisters.
Our future is with God. It is prophesied. To be honest, I don’t think God is the one that forgets, it’s us. I feel like the title could be swapped into… beloved children, remember your God, remember your future and where you are heading, remember your brethren, forget not the Lord your God, forget not your brethren. What you have done to the least of them, you have done to Me. Remembrance takes discipline and work. Memorizing scriptures takes time and so many repetition. Same for success in knowing God, loving God… when it’s hard and inconvenient, all takes work and great discipline to remember and do. “Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love…to keep these qualities ever so increasing, so that we won’t be ineffective and unfruitful …”(2 Peter 1: 5-8).
There’s a differentiation I need to point out, we must stop striving to be accepted by God (we are already accepted) which I agree with the devotional, BUT we need to strive continually to build upon His Kingdom. “Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the Day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire” (1 Corinthians 3:12-16 KJV). “We must wake ourselves up! Or somebody else will take our place, and bear our cross, and thereby rob us of our crown”- I love this quote by William Booth. It matters to God what quality of work we put in, or if we put it any work at all. There is the reality of making it to Heaven yet suffering loss! May the Lord give us wisdom to count our days, to remember that there is a race that we are running toward, sharing the suffering and partaking in the glory of ONE. Be blessed dear sisters.
@michelle Patire – you seem like a very genuine person! I’m sure it was well received ❤️
Happy Wednesday ladies!
Psalm 139 hits so deep in so many areas. Recently I got to talking about being a teenager with multiple concussions and the chemical alterations to my brain that sent me spiraling out of control. I hadn’t thought about it or talked about it in so long that it was almost like telling someone else’s story….but it is uniquely mine.
Psalm 139:11 was where I dwelled: “If I say, ‘surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night.” I didn’t FEEL God in the darkness with me, but one very vivid moment from that time (that is glaring at me in hindsight) was that God WAS WITH ME. If verse 11 was me, verse 12 was HIM: “Even the darkness is not dark to YOU, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to you.”
It took me a LONG time to see that what I felt was a whirling storm in a dark pit that didn’t seem to have a bottom, it wasn’t that at all to God. He had me cradled in His arms the whole time and held me until the storm quieted and my body and mind healed. It gives me goosebumps just remembering it, and it reminds me that when I feel myself going into the darkness again, I never go alone.