GOD REMEMBERS US: A LOVE THAT NEVER FORGETS!
Word For Today: October 21, 2019: GOD REMEMBERS US: A LOVE THAT NEVER FORGETS!
Beloved,
I think we often use the term “never forget” to mark important dates and times. We also use it negatively to remember what people had done or spoken against us.
Yet, God’s love never forgets us. He never forgets our love for Him either! Hebrews 6:10 Paul writes to us, “For God is not unjust, that he should forget your work and the love which you have shewn in his name, you who have ministered and do minister to the saints.”
Did you notice Paul writes that God is not unjust. His justice not only is against sin and to avenge the righteous, but it also remembers our work and love we have showed in his name. He does not forget those who minister for and to him and those who minister to His saints.
God remembers us! God remembers the love you have for him. God remembers the love you have displayed to minister to the saints and others in His name!
Jeremiah 2:2 "Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the LORD, "I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth, The love of your betrothals, Your following after Me in the wilderness, Through a land not sown.
God remembers our devotion. God remembers our love for him. No matter what you are facing, no matter how many times you stumbled and fell, God remembers your love for him. God remembers.
We may forget sometimes the love we have for the Lord when the enemy tries to beat you over the head for your failures, but God never forgets. He has placed Himself as a seal over our hearts and He remembers! He never forgets! He remembers!
We love Him because He first loves us. Yet, he knows we love Him. He knows that through the test and trials that love and devotion will be proved.
Job loved the Lord with all his heart. He went through severe trials, yet even in his worst hour he said, “Though you slay me, yet, I will trust you.” God remembered Job and restored His fortunes doubly blessed.
God remembers the love you have for him when we are being broken, crushed, put out, despised, rejected, ridiculed, left for dead by family, friends and even the body of Christ. God never forgets our love for him.
It is critical we never forget His love for us first, but it is equally important for us to know that God never, ever, ever forgets our love for him. He never forgets the commitments and dedications we made to him. We may have failed at them to this point, but He knows we meant it.
He knows that we ultimately surrender to His power to keep those commitments we made. He knows apart from Him we can do nothing. So he holds those commitments like gold in His heart. Every single prayer, every single act of worship, adoration we have ever given to Him He remembers.
He remembers the Love we had for him at first in the Book of Revelation so much he gives them time to repent and come back to our “First Love.” Isn’t it incredible He has to “remind us” of the Love we have for Him “at first.” He didn’t forget we did.
Marriage is a love covenant relationship. God’s love between us is even greater than a love between a husband and a wife. That is the nearest earthly comparison he can show us of what that “love bond” relationship between us and him is to Him. Yet, it is so much more than that.
He remembers every love word you said. He remembers every love song you sang. He remembers every love tear you shed for him alone. He remembers. He remembers! That is why He will avenge speedily those who cry out to him day and night. He remembers!
Look how God remembered Cornelius love demonstrated by His giving and how that moved His heart toward Cornelius and His family.
10 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment.
2 He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.
3 One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!”
4 Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked.
The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.
5 Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.
6 He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”
Cornelius tells Peter of what the angel said to Him: Verse 30: …30 Cornelius answered: “Four days ago, I was in my house praying at this, the ninth hour. Suddenly a man in radiant clothing stood before me
31and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your gifts to the poor have been remembered before God.
32Therefore send to Joppa for Simon, who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, by the sea.…
Do you see it, “YOUR PRAYERS HAVE BEEN HEARD, AND YOUR GIFTS TO THE POOR.... HAVE BEEN REMEMBERED... HAVE BEEN REMEMBERED.... BEFORE OUR GOD.
Oh, Beloved, of the Lord, let these words strengthen you today. Let them quiet your soul as they are doing in my own.
HE REMEMBERS! HE REMEMBERS YOUR LOVE FOR HIM! HE REMEMBERS ALL YOU HAVE DONE OUT OF A PURE HEART FOR HIM. HE DOES NOT FORGET. HE WILL NOT FORGET YOU. HE WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU OR FORSAKE YOU!
Malachi 3:16-18 continues to remind of us on how God see and remembers those who truly love Him and desire to please Him alone.
16 Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.
17 “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. 18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
Beloved, Go says in verse 16: A SCROLL OF REMEMBRANCE WAS WRITTEN IN HIS PRESENCE.... RIGHT BEFORE HIS PRESENCE.. GOD IS REMEMBERING AND WRITING DOWN YOUR LOVE, YOUR DEVOTION, AND ALL YOU DO FOR HIM AND FOR HIS PEOPLE OUT OF A PURE HEART OF LOVE.
A BOOK IS WRITTEN IN HEAVEN OF ALL THOSE WHO FEAR AND LOVE HIM AND HONOR HIS NAME! EVERY PRAYER, EVERY SONG, EVERY TEAR, EVERY ACT OF LOVE, EVERY WORD OF LOVE, EVERY ACT OF TRUE WORSHIP, EVERYTHING SAID AND DONE IN YOUR LIFE OUT OF THAT PURE LOVE GOD REMEMBERS.
Malachi writes, “IN THAT DAY I WILL ACT, SAYS THE LORD ALMIGHTY... THEY WILL BE... THEY WILL BE... MY TREASURED POSSESSIONS. I WILL SPARE THEM, AS A FATHER HAS COMPASSION AND SPARES HIS SON... WHO SERVES HIM...
GOD REMEMBERS! GOD REMEMBERS IN THE SCROLL OF REMEMBRANCE. WE ARE TREASURED... TREASURED.. POSSESSIONS TO THE LORD... HE REMEMBERS US!
Beloved, let us notice what he choose to forget and not remember when we repent of our sins and failures? It is the exact opposite of remembering our acts of love!
Psalm 103:11-13 Bless the LORD, O My Soul
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him.
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our sins and transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.…
Beloved, God remembers the devotion of those who fear him and he removes our sins as far as the east is from the west He remembers them no more. What a great and loving God we have. HE REMEMBERS OUR SIN... NO MORE.... NO MORE... AS FAR AS THE EAST IS FROM THE WEST..... YET HE REMEMBERS OUR LOVE, DEVOTION TO HIM AND OUR MINISTRY TO HIM AND TO THE OTHER SAINTS.... GOD IS LOVE! GOD IS LOVE!
He is the God that remembers us. He just doesn’t remember us in our suffering and afflictions which he does, He remembers our love for him, our devotion for him, all that we do for him and in his name out of love!
We are the object of His perfect love! We are the object of the quality of His love! John says it this way in 1st John 3: 1-3
3 See what an incredible quality of love the Father has shown to us, that we would [be permitted to] be named and called and counted the children of God! And so we are! For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
2 Beloved, we are [even here and] now children of God, and it is not yet made clear what we will be [after His coming]. We know that when He comes and is revealed, we will [as His children] be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is [in all His glory].
3 And everyone who has this hope [confidently placed] in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (holy, undefiled, guiltless).
What an incredible “QUALITY OF LOVE THAT THE FATHER HAS SHOWN US... HE REMEMBERS... HE REMEMBERS US.. HE REMEMBERS OUR LOVE FOR HIM... HE REMEMBER THOSE WHO FEAR HIS NAME...
HE REMEMBERS OUR GIVING... HE REMEMBERS US AS WE TEND TO THE POOR.. HE REMEMBERS ALL THAT WE DO IN LOVE AND DEVOTION TO HIM AND TO THE SAINTS. GOD REMEMBERS US.
Let these words encourage your Spirit today and lift you up out of any place of fear, hopelessness and despair. Let them lift you up even to a higher level and experience of that very Love.
I pray for all of us today, the prayer Paul prayed for us in Ephesians chapter 3: 14-21 prayer:
Ephesians 3:14-21 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)
14 For this reason [[a]seeing the greatness of this plan by which you are built together in Christ], I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 For Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named [that Father from Whom all fatherhood takes its title and derives its name].
16 May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality].
17 May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love,
18 That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God’s devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it];
19 [That you may really come] to know [practically, [b]through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses [c]mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] [d]unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and [e]become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!
20 Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]
21 To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen (so be it).
