Remembering & Imagination

I was looking at my blog posts and noticed that this one was not posted and since I had a conversation in which a close friend and I were talking about how do we make sure that when the tough times come, we are ready to do what God asks of us, no matter what.  I thought this post I had written back in March helps to illustrate a good point and wanted to share.

Remember how I shared that I have not read through the entire Bible?....yet.  Well, I'm working on it chronologically right now.  I'm nearing the end of Exodus and I have always wondered why the Israelites forgot so easily what God had done for them.  In a previous post, I touched a little on personally needing reminders & that God uses His Word and peoples' testimonies to help us remember the things he has done which helps strengthen our faith & our walk with him. As I was reading about the slavery of the Israelites and how God saved them from Egypt, I started to realize that it really doesn't take us long to forget or 'feel' forgotten about, in our sinful human nature.  Especially when trials come.

My Disclaimer: Now please realize that the Bible doesn't say all of this exactly as I am imagining it & I'm not trying to put words or meanings to the scripture.  What I am trying to do is apply it to my life, think about my human nature, kinda take a walk in their shoes rather than judging them, & realize how in the world these people who saw so many amazing things, miracles, food provided for them daily, etc could forget what God asked them to do in such a short time.  Would I do the same as them & create an idol to worship because the leader had not returned and brought directions to the group?  I used to think that was so stupid but as I'm walking through this journey, I don't honestly know how I would behave.

So Moses met with God and was told the Covenant that God wanted with the Israelites. Then Moses went & told the people what God had said & they responded that they would follow the covenant.  Then Moses went back up to be with God & the people were left down in their camp & didn't hear from Moses or see him for like 6 weeks.  While he was up there, God wrote the Commandments on the Tablets but all of this time with God took about 6 weeks.  The Israelites knew what God had done for them by bringing them out of Egypt & seeing the plagues that hit the Egyptians & didn't touch the Israelites, those were miracles that they witnessed with their own eyes yet, only a few months later, they had forgotten the vast & mighty things God had done to save them, to rescue them.  Then when their leader, Moses, the one they could see with their eyes, had gone up to be with God & talk with him, they got antsy, impatient, & probably scared.  They didn't know if Moses had died, if he was coming back, & since they had been in bondage for so long, their hearts were probably a bit frail in trusting God.  Sometimes we think that because we can see something it is more real.  They trusted Moses because they could see him.  I think they trusted God too but they may have wondered whether God had already forgotten about them.  Maybe many of them felt forgotten about when they were in Egypt for hundreds of years in slavery.  But God never forgot about them.  Like I said, I used to wonder how they could forget such amazing events.  I know, I don't want to forget the amazing things God has done for me.

So here's what I want to do. I want to remember the things that God has done in my life and the things He did many years ago in the times of those from the history of the Bible. I know that I will not remember everything myself so since I personally like words so much, I choose to use words to paint a picture in order to remember (journal).  This is where using my imagination sort of comes in.  A definition of imagination is:  the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality. So when I have seen something before but do not see it right now, I use my imagination to picture it or imagine it in my mind.  That helps me to remember it.  We imagine how to get somewhere when we are driving. When someone says pretend or imagine I have an apple in my hand here, almost everyone can imagine an apple sitting in the person's hand because we've either seen one or have a pretty good idea of what one looks like.  People may picture it in different colors (green vs red vs yellow) but you get the idea.  Well it is hard for us to remember anything that we can't picture.  Andrew Wommack talks about this and says, if you were asked how many doors you have in your house you might not know it right away, however, if you sat & pictured/imagined your house in your mind, you would more than likely be able to figure out how many doors you have.  So it would make sense to think that in order for us to remember things that God has done in our lives & those close to us, we would need to imagine it in order to remember it.  Why do I want to use my imagination for this?  I want to remember so that when times are tough, when I feel as though I don't see the end of the tunnel, I can remember that God is always faithful. That he wants what's best for me, and that he will help me get through to the end of the trial.  Make sense?  I thought so too.