01 - The Importance of Remembering

One of the great preoccupations of so many modern day Christians and spiritual people in general for that matter is that there is some great spiritual secret just waiting to be discovered. Somewhere in the abyss of all knowledge, once discovered this secret will make the Christian life easy and transform everything they at once thought obscure to suddenly making sense. It is unsurprising therefore that people spend millions of dollars purchasing the latest Christian literature or hours upon hours listening to the latest sermons in order to make a spiritual breakthrough in their own lives. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not discouraging anyone from these things, indeed they have been highly profitable in my own Christian walk, but I believe people can often be found looking in the wrong place for such a breakthrough. I believe the greatest spiritual ground a Christian can make in his own life is to simply remember the fundamental truths of why they became a Christian and what it means to be and live as an adopted Son of the God most high.

I believe one of the great problems of the Christian life therefore and indeed my own ability to live successfully as a Christian is spiritual forgetfulness; people forget important truths about what it means to carry out and practise the Christian life. I am very specific here to mention the importance of remembering in reference to practical Christian living, and not remembering large amounts of theoretical information with little or no relevance to actual life.

This can be seen in my own testimony growing. Growing up in a Christian family I grew up always knowing God as a very real person being part of every day life. For this reason I can’t remember a specific point in time when I became a Christian, although along my journey I remember making various commitments to God. My baptism for this reason was an intensely significant moment for me in that it was a point in time where I displayed what it meant for me to be and to live as a Christian. Although I can’t remember when my first love as a Christian began I can look back and remember my baptism as a point in my life which symbolised for me what it means to be a Christian. It is an event in which I can remember the most important thing about myself, that I am dead to my own self but made alive by the indwelling power of Christ Jesus. And that I should look back and remember that event and live every day in light of what it means.