If I Could Only Forget

Cr­­­­ossing the Jordan Today's picture is of an IDF vehicle crossing the Jordan River during an exerci­se. It reminds us of Genesis 32:9-10; "Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, 'Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you,' I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies" “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, the old things are passed away; behold new things have come” (2Cor. 5:17). Hey Gang:  I have come to the conclusion that one of Satan’s greatest weapons he uses to keep us in bondage is our memories.  Would it not be tremendous if, each day, God wiped away the memory of all of the things we have said and done that does not bring honor and glory to our Lord? But tragically our memory banks tend to hang onto all the things that do not bring honor and glory to God and we forget the victories God has given us.  Does that mean that we give more credence to the things that Satan surfaces in our minds than the things that God surfaces in our minds?  I think we could say 'YES’ to that.  But, is there a way to have victory over Satan’s using our memory banks as a weapon against our walk with the Lord?  Again, I would say 'Yes'. Did you ever have gross thoughts creep into your head when you were in prayer?  Pastor Mumford, an old country preacher, suggested that was God’s way of purging those thoughts from our hearts by giving them to God.  In other words, it was God’s laxative for cleaning out things that do not belong in the hearts of His children. So, what do we do about memories that do not bring honor and glory to God?   James gave us sound advice when he wrote, “Submit therefore to God, Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (4:7)  But, keep in mind, when Jesus was in the wilderness and had defeated Satan at his own game, deception, Luke gave us a clue about the way we can expect Satan to act.  He wrote: “he (Satan) left Him (Jesus) until a more opportune time.” (Luke 4:13). And how do we resist the devil?  By filling our heads with weapons - God's Word - that make him flee from us.  I have often taught the principle that our heads need to be filled with knobs to hang things on.  Unfortunately, most folks have not placed these weapons that will defeat the evil one in our memories on these knobs for use when the enemy shows up. Let me make a suggestion to you this morning by installing a weapon that works very effectively for me.  I have found that Satan does not like praise songs when sung from our heart.  He certainly does not like the little songs that I learned as a child: ‘Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so’; ‘This Little Light of Mine I am going to let it shine’; and ‘Lord, Make me a sanctuary of Your love’. Soooo, my young troopers, What say ye?  Are your knobs  in your heads filled with God’s Word and His songs?  Are you equipped to sing praise to Him when slough-foot comes calling?  I have bad news for you, he will make his rounds today.  As Pastor Wigglesworth said when Satan came calling on him in the middle of the night, “O, its only you” and he went back to sleep.  Paul says, "Rejoice always and again I say rejoice!"  Hey, give it go today and check it out! Blessings, Gramps