Deuteronomy 6:9 “Write them on the doorframes of your houses and your gates.”
Remembering is crucial. God knew how forgetful his people would be. The Old Testament is a frustratingly consistent cycle of his people forgetting him, disobeying, suffering the consequences, repenting, being restored, and then forgetting again.
In Deutoronomy 6, God insists: “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and your gates.” (verses 6-9)
There’s so much in those verses to apply to our lives today. That last one invariably was at the heart of each cycle of repentance. In brokenness they re-read what had been written down by their forebears as instructed by God. That’s why God was so insistent that they write down and record his works.
Catherine Cox researched three hundred people from different backgrounds who were significant history-shapers to discover some of their shared characteristics. The one (perhaps unexpected) common denominator among them she found was that they all kept a journal of one kind or another. As Mark Batterson notes: “The shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory!”
I haven’t kept a journal my whole life, but certainly for many years. Sometimes I’ve re-read different sections, and a key life-lesson that I’d managed to forget jumps out at me off the pages and encourages me afresh. If I hadn’t written it down, it would be gone forever.
In Old Testament times, God got them to build an altar as a memorial to him – it was a place they could go back to and remember how he had intervened. It strengthened them for tomorrow. Maybe journaling is a modern-day equivalent.
Too busy? Too busy to be blessed? It’s your choice…
Lord, I don’t want to forget your faithfulness. I choose to remember today. Amen!
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