Our three-pound brain is the most complex arrangement of matter ever discovered in the universe. It contains ten billion neurons (possibly ten times as many) and has 100 trillion neurological interconnections that if stretched out would extend 100 thousand miles. The brain fires at a rate of a thousand-trillion computations per second and can hold information equivalent to that contained in twenty-five million books. From Einstein to savants, we are known for prodigious feats of memory. Each of us carries around a mental videotape cassette containing three trillion pictures. We are the only species with the gift of language, and are capable of thinking at a rate of 800 words per minute, and have use and recognition vocabularies of ten thousand and forty thousand words, respectively.
I emphasize again that we have an amazing capacity for memory. We focus so much on what we don’t remember that we are not aware of how much we do remember. If you doubt this, just think of a few of the many things you wish you could forget and cannot.
Recall that God requires that we use this wonderful capacity of memory in serving Him. We are straightly instructed to remember the Lord our God and not to forget Him. As we learned from DEU 8, we are especially warned against forgetting God in the midst of material prosperity. Our Lord knows how easily we can get so caught up in the pursuit of things, that we forget the Giver of all things.
Let’s consider some other passages of Scripture that deal with the subject of memory.
Psalms 103:17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;
18 To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
God’s mercy is upon “those that remember his commandments to do them.” Now don’t you want the mercy of God to be upon you? Then I suggest you work on your memory of what He tells you to do. When you find yourself tempted to blow up at somebody, do you remember what God says about anger? What He says to do about it? When you have a grudge against someone, do you remember what God commands you to do about that? God does not consider that you remember His commandments as you ought, if you just remember what the commandments say. You must remember the commandment to do them. If you just hear the commandment, but you do not do it, you are called in Scripture “a forgetful hearer” (JAM 1:25). If you remember His commandments to do them, then you will discover God’s everlasting mercy upon you.
Bear in the mind that the blessed gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is not going to benefit you as it should if you do not keep it in memory.
1 Corinthians 15:1 ¶Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
What good does the gospel do you, if you forget about it? Your mind should recall the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again the third day all according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen of eyewitnesses? This is the greatest event in all of history. You would perish forever had not this event taken place. Nothing more important could have happened to you than this. This event gives you hope in the face of death. This event should define the life you live now. And, yet, how often does it even cross your mind? When was the last time you thanked God for it? To help us remember the gospel, our Lord Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper.
1 Corinthians 11:24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
It is absolutely sinful to take the bread and the cup during that supper and think about things other than what our Lord commanded us to remember. It is forgetting at a time when we are expressly commanded to remember!
Recall that Jerusalem was the city of the house of God in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, the local church is the house of God for us (1TI 3:15). So apply the following verse to your church.
Psalms 137:5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
6 If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
When the Psalmist wrote these words, he was in exile by the rivers of Babylon. He was missing the house of God and thinking about it. Now consider the words that I have cited. Where would you be professionally if your right hand forgot its skills and your tongue was glued to the roof of your mouth? Is your love for the church of God so great that you would want to lose your professional skills if you forgot God’s house and if you did not prefer it above the thing you enjoy most? Do you prefer God’s house above sports, shopping, parties, travel, movies, music, art, sex, etc.? And just how often do you think of your church? Do you remember it? Do you pray for it? Or is it out of sight, out of mind?
Let the questions I have raised search your heart. God willing, I shall have more to say about memory in a coming meditation. The first step in solving any problem is awareness of the problem. If you are convicted that your have not remembered your Lord as you should, you are on the way to recovery. By God’s mercy I am one who is reminding you.
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