Reference to the word, "Remember" or "Do not forget" is mentioned at least 180 times in the Bible. If a particular word is repeated over and over in the Scriptures, then it must be of great importance to God that He doesn't want us to miss the message it carries within it.

By Dr. Dennis K. Mugimba

• Since we know that the Scriptures are not a creation of Man but inspired by the Holy Spirit, the repeated use or reference to the word, “Remember,” is not out of redundancy.
• The ability to remember is one of the greatest and precious abilities the LORD God gave Mankind.
• God is not in the business of ambushing His children. An ambush is a strategy that is used against an enemy or the enemy uses against us. We neither are God’s enemies nor is He our enemy unless we chose to become such.
• The LORD would have us remember during the crisis what He tells us before the event is that we are not overcome by fear of the crisis.
• God out of love for us has chosen to always reveal to us crises before they happen irrespective of whether or not they have been started by the enemy. He has said that He reveals to use through His servants the prophets – Amos 3:7.
• Though God is faithful at His word of always alerting us as to what is coming, we too often forget what He spoke to us before the crisis showed up.
• Always remember what God tells you before the crisis.
• In 1 Samuel 12:13-16, the LORD commands Israel to obey His voice saying: “¹³ Now here is the king you have chosen, the one you asked for; see, the Lord has set a king over you. ¹⁴ If you fear the Lord and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God—good! ¹⁵ But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you, as it was against your ancestors. ¹⁶ “Now then, stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes!”
• The LORD’s instructions to Israel upon getting a King was very clear, to remember and obey His voice and commands or else His hand would be against them. The grace of God does not cover rebellion; rather it gives us the grace to repent of our rebellion against Him.
• In 1 Samuel 13: 1-14, an account is given of how Israel was in a crisis with their arch-enemy, the Philistines. King Saul didn’t follow the instructions of Prophet Samuel to wait for him. So after seven days of waiting, the King takes matters into his own hands because of fear that people had started to dissert him: “¹¹ “What have you done?” asked Samuel. Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash, ¹² I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.” ¹³ “You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. ¹⁴ But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.””
• When the day came, the King became impatient; forgetting the word of the Prophet.
• In verse 1 Samuel 13:13, we learn for the first time that having the Kingdom of Israel forever was up for grabs for Saul had he not forgotten to remember to obey the command of the LORD.
• In 1 Samuel 12:16, the LORD had told Israel to stand still and see what He would do before the eyes of Israel.
• In verse 1 Samuel 13:14, we learn that if King Saul had obeyed the instruction the LORD gave him through Prophet Samuel before the crisis, household of Saul would have had the Kingdom of Israel forever.
• A single act of not remembering and heeding the pre-crisis instruction led to Saul losing a divine destiny that was for the taking.
• The time of crisis is not an exemption to disregarding what God has already told us; rather a test of our faith to obey His instructions.
• An individual, a local Church, an organization, or even a nation can lose its divine destiny simply because they did not pay heed to the pre-crisis instructions God gave.
• God has said that He will protect us through his pandemic. Therefore, let us not engage ourselves in anything to do with seeking other gods or powers – such action will grieve the heart of God.
• Lastly, Jesus Christ tells His disciples in John 14:15 that if we love Him, we should keep His commandments. We cannot keep what we do not remember – we have to first remember it then observe it!

 

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