Don't forget to forget"

I turned to my traveling companions and said "I think I just shook hands with a piece of history!"  I was in a small home in Northern Thailand not far from the Burmese border.  A wrinkled elderly gentlemen had finished his testimony.  He wasn't speaking in English but even before the translator related his comments, I recognized his mention of Adoniram Judson.  He had said, "My grandfather was baptized by Adoniram Judson."

God called Adoniram Judson to be a missionary in Burma in the early 1800s in a time when most believers thought missions was a waste of time. Many years passed without a single convert. Judson served the Lord his whole life.  He suffered the loss of wives, children, friends and finance.  Perhaps his time on earth seemed a failure when measured by human standards.

Yet his faith in God and his faithfulness laid the foundation of missions as we know it today. Thousands have come to know salvation because of his persistence to share God's love with a few.  He has inspired hundreds to duplicate his call and go to other lands to live and tell of God's great love.

Today I am reminded that the fulfillment of God's plan has its own time schedule.  In Deuteronomy 25: 17-19 God tells the Israelites to remember the evil of the Amalekites, what they had done to them on the way out of Egypt and that the Amalekites had no fear of God.  The Israelites were to blot out the memory of the Amalekites.   God told them "Don't forget to forget them!"(That's a Jan Sipe translation!)

The evil of the Amalekites began well before the Israelites who heard these words were even born.  They were a generation removed from the exit from Egypt.   The Amalekites attacked the Israelites at Rephidim early in the journey to the Promised Land. (Exodus 17: 8-16) The Israelites defeated them but the victory came only when Moses kept his hands held up.  When his arms grew tired Aaron and Hur helped him sit and they held his arms up. That day they were instructed to write it down that the memory of the Amalekites would be blotted out!  Don't forget to forget them!

Generations later, Samuel told Saul (I Samuel 15) that it was time to punish the Amalekites for what they had done to the Israelites on their way out of Egypt.  Saul was not to spare any Amalekite human or animal.  He was to be the one to blot them out.  Yet he let Agag the king of the Amalekites live along with his best livestock.  He forgot to forget them and instead forgot what God said!

In our instant gratification mindset, it seems that fulfillment takes forever.  Yet these verses remind me that God has a plan with a completely different time frame.  I am reminded that I am to forget the obstacles along the journey but remember the victory and that the victory belongs to God.  I  may enjoy the fruits of the victory but God is the victor.  So my thought of "Don't forget to forget" means forget the effect of the obstacles, ignore the scars and don't live as a victim of the bumps along the journey.  Remember the victory, even when it has been a long time coming or perhaps is still yet to come, and that God is The Victor.  As Adoniram Judson was an ingredient in the fulfillment of God's plan to reach all people, so I am given the opportunity to be a part of God's plan.  Yet His timetable will be different from my desired timetable.

When I was a young girl facing life's slights and disappointments, my mother would ask me a question to keep these obstacles in perspective.  "In the span of eternity, just how important is this........?"  It may not have been the answer my young heart wanted to hear but the question eventually made me keep a balance to the power of disappointment.

My elderly Christian brother from Thailand will remind me that God has a  plan and I have a part in the plan if I so choose to follow God's call.  Adoniram Judson will remind me that I may not see the full fruit of my service but what I do is part of something much bigger than I could plan or imagine.  My  mom will also remind me not to think more of myself nor life's disappointments.  If God will insure that the Amalekites will get what they deserve, at just the right time,  He is certainly able to handle the obstacles in my lifetime.

Today I am reminded to trust The Plan, God's plan, and have patience, the victory is imminent.  I need to forget the obstacles in my journey and  refuse to live under their power.  I will remember that the victory is sure because God is in control, He is able and He has a plan!

Life's obstacles  present us with a choice- to allow the obstacles to form the path of our existence or to trust the One True God on the path of abundant life.  Don't forget to forget the obstacles.  Do remember that God is in control.