“Bless the Lord, O my soul: and forget not all His benefits.” (Psa.103:2)
Dearly beloved in Christ,
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!
As we have come to the last months of the year, it is time for us to look back and thank God for all His blessings. Very often, man fails to remember God’s blessings, but only remembers how God disciplined him. The reason is that he is not able to see the Father’s heart of God.
God wants man to forget certain things, but, at the same time, to remember some other things. But he forgets things which God wants him to remember, and remembers things which God wants him to forget. The Israelites forgot their miseries in Egypt and what God did for them, but they remembered the cucumber they ate in Egypt.
This is the problem with man’s heart, as the Bible says: ‘the heart of man is deceitful above all things and is beyond cure’. Man fails to remember the love and mercy of God. Even God’s people fail to remember that the forgiveness that they received from God is undeserving.
When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, He said : “Do this in remembrance of me”. Jesus wanted that His people do not forget Him and His sacrifice.
At the Table, we are reminded that it was our sin that took Jesus to the cross. However, very soon we forget the fact that God in Christ has forgiven us, but continue in our sins. Are we ungrateful like the Israelites?
We also forget that all the blessings that we enjoy are gifts from God. When God, in His grace, blesses us, there is a great possibility that we forget God and trust in our ability. Moses warned the people of Israel that they should not say to themselves “‘my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth.” (Deut.8:18)
Moses was repeatedly asking the Israelites not to forget the Lord. He said, “Be careful that you do not for-get the Lord your God, failing to observe His commands, His laws and His decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Deut.8:11-14)
Forgetfulness is a deadly spiritual dis-ease and we need healing. We should never forget what God has done in our lives and how He has delivered us from the bondage of sin and Satan.
As God’s children, we must acknowledge our inability to do anything without Him and learn to thank God for all His blessings.
The Psalmist lists some of the many blessings in Psalm 103:
- He has forgiven all our sins and heals all our diseases.
- He has redeemed our life from the pit and crowned us with love and compassion.
- He always satisfies our desires with good things.
- He is compassionate and gracious; slow to anger, abounding in love.
- He will not always accuse, nor will He harbour His anger forever.
- He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
- As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
- Can we remember and always thank God for these blessings?
- “How can I repay the LORD for all His goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.” (Psa.116:12-13)
Dear brethren, let us be grateful children and thank our heavenly Father for all His blessings and bless His holy name.
With blessings!
Yours in Christ
Pastor M.A. Jacob
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