Word of Encouragement (3/4/2021)
We are thinking about what we should do when God’s answer to our prayer is yes. Yesterday, we talked about the importance of giving God the thanks He deserves for His kindness and memorializing it in some way. There is another reason that giving thanks to God, not forgetting all His benefits, is important: it is to prepare us for the challenges we might have to face in the future. As long as we live in this fallen world, we cannot avoid problems and adversities. Remembering God’s past goodness will help us not to panic but endure with patience and hope when new trials come: “Through many dangers, toils and snares / I have already come. / ’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, / and grace will lead me home.”
Think of the Psalmist. He seems to have been banished from the land of promise. He was afflicted with many troubles so many taunted him, saying, “Where is your God” (v. 3)? But what brought him out of grief and despair and made him declare, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God” (vs. 5-6)? It was by remembering God’s goodness he experienced in the past: “These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival” (v. 4).
The people of Israel show the terrible cost of not giving thanks to God for His kindness and forgetting His benefits. Even though God had delivered them from the Egyptian bondage with many signs and wonders, even though they saw God parting the Red Sea, even though they heard the voice of God at Mount Sinai, even though they saw the pillar of cloud and fire leading them through the wilderness, even though they ate manna every day, they panicked and accused God of trying to kill them every time they encountered a problem. Granted that running out of water in the wilderness was a matter of life and death, they had experienced on numerous occasions what God was able to do to meet their needs. But when a new problem arose, they acted as though God had never rescued them from their troubles, or the new problem was too big for God, or God would not help them this time. If they remembered the deeds of God’s kindness in the past, they acted as though God was setting them up for a spectacular fall. So, God condemned that generation to perish in the wilderness for their unconscionable ingratitude and forgetfulness.
Joshua and Caleb, on the other hand, remembered what God had done for Israel. This strengthened their trust and confidence in God, which enabled them to face whatever challenge that lay before them as an opportunity to see God’s surpassing glory and power in a new way. Their trust in God showed how much BIGGER their God was than their problems. Oh, how important it is for us to sincerely thank God for the kindness He shows us and not forget what He has done! Let us remember that whatever goodness He shows us is not only for our present but also for our future! But even if we don’t get all our prayers answered, let us not forget the greatest and surest demonstration of God’s goodness toward us in Jesus Christ.