Forgotten

 In his book, Unlimiting God, Richard Blackaby shares a powerful story. As a seminary president and much in demand speaker, he was involved in a great deal of Kingdom "business." However, he became convicted about how his family might be suffering because of it. As he was preparing to depart for yet another conference, he scheduled a coffee date with his wife before leaving for the airport. However, unexpected business broke into his schedule and he ended up sharing nothing more than a quick kiss and a goodbye as he walked out the door.

At the conference, as he listened to various speakers, the Holy Spirit began to speak to him about what he needed to do about his growing neglect of his wife and family. He wrote down a list of "changes" he needed to make, ending up with a full page, and a resolve to carry out all the contents of that page. However, when he arrived back home he found a mountain of demands awaiting him. He fell back into the same old routine and same old patterns of neglect.

Time went by and he acquired a new Bible which he immediately began to use. One day in study he decided to look up something in his old Bible and pulled it from the shelf where he'd placed it. When he opened it, the list he'd made at that conference fell from the page where he'd placed it....and forgotten it. He wrote, "There in my hands was the list of actions that I knew without question Almighty God had given me.....I read each item and remembered how powerfully God had spoken to me during that service. It became painfully obvious why I hadn't experienced His anointing upon me since that time. I had filed God's instructions instead of following them."

Where have we been guilty of the same? How often have we sat under a multitude of preaching "voices," all the while hearing His Voice through them, all the while carefully writing down what we heard, and vowing, as Blackaby did to make changes? Yet soon after filed what we'd received away, rather than following  His Voice, His heart, and His instructions? How many lists are gathering dust somewhere, either on shelves or in our heart? Have many words pierced our hearts.....and then been forgotten? How many more will be? Do we understand He holds us accountable for all of them?

Somehow we've fallen into the deception of thinking that being convicted about something, becoming aware of it, is the breakthrough? We know there's a problem and we think that is the victory. We may think and talk much about it, even make lists of intended changes as Blackaby did....but somehow, the lists always end up upon the shelves of our heart. What He'd addressed remains unchanged. We remain unchanged. And the Father is fine with it....we tell ourselves.

Preacher and writer Mark Batterson writes, "It's not what we're thinking, saying, or intending in response to what He speaks. It's what we DO!" In Matthew 25, Jesus told the faithful stewards, "Well DONE!" in response to their being faithful in what He'd given them. He had no such words for the one who hadn't. Which words does He have for us?

What are the last words He spoke into your life about an issue that He made clear had to change? Did it? What did you do with His words? Did you take them to heart, then "file" them away in some corner of it under "Forgotten?" Or did you follow them, and are you following them now? With His Holy Spirit conviction comes Holy Spirit power. Power to turn away from, to change from and be transformed. Power to be made new. Has that happened to you, to us? Or, has the Light dimmed, the behaviors, actions, and habits continued, and sadly grown stronger and more ingrained? Do they just gather dust on the shelves of our hearts and minds....all while the power of His Presence in us grows ever weaker? If so, may the last thing we heard from Him become the first thing we hear....and do....today.

Blessings,
Pastor O