And so begins a series of letters in which I will write to my future self. The goal is to remember. To remember the good deeds of the Lord, to remember the lessons I’ve learned, to remember what I thought was important which may lose its urgency as time rolls; and to evaluate if it has rightly lost it’s importance or if I have fallen into apathy by pursuing bad or even good things in place of the best. I want to remember, because I so easily forget.
August, 2019
Dear forthcoming Me,
I wish to remind you of God’s love. What it is, what it is not, that it never fails, and that it is yours. Your forgone self has trembled many a time about this but do you remember when Christ flooded you with peace? When you gave up distrust which you politely called doubt and fell on God’s grace? Has He ever dropped you? Has He ever failed you? You have failed Him, I of all people know this, but when God’s children are faithless He remains faithful. The same faithfulness that will not permit the guilty to go unpunished will not damn the redeemed. Do you remember when you started noticing the frequency of the term “Steadfast love” in scripture, referring to what God’s love is like? The Hebrew word for it is “chesed” and is found around 200 times in the Hebrew Bible according to google. I have a feeling most of them are probably speaking of God’s love. It would only need to be told to you once for you to know it was true but His steadfast love kindly and abundantly repeated it. You are faithfully and unfailingly loved. Remember this, let it revive your soul. They say women flourish under the love of a good man; how much more should be your flourishing under the love of this God and His Son who became man, loving you not just by word but also by deed. He loved you to death and will love you to your death and will love you through eternity and would love you beyond eternity if there was such a thing. Through His death you will live though you die. You have been chosen, set apart by the One who sent His Spirit to comfort and help you till He returns to gather what is His, to destroy evil, and to make ALL things right and new. So while time remains imitate Christ as He loves His Father and others with this steadfast love; and in like manner let what He pours into you overflow and refresh your fellow pilgrims. Though all those who have loved you on earth have not always done so steadfastly and you most certainly have not always loved them steadfastly, it is not so with God, it is not so. His steadfast love endures forever.
Remember to remember
~Your bygone you
“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,
for His steadfast love endures forever.” ~Psalm 136:1
Reforming Joy 