Whether at church, at home alone, or in the car with the radio playing, I’ve sung “We Will Remember” probably hundreds of times. Every, single time, I reflect on what God has done in my life. But as I sang along in church yesterday, the song took on a new meaning for me.
I’ve always sung the lyrics with my past in mind. Yesterday, I sang with the future in mind. I moved from I am remembering {present tense} to I will remember {future tense}. It became a sort of declaration of faith. A promise to remember that He is faithful.
We live in a time when even the church seems to encourage hiding our struggles rather than pointing people to Jesus in our struggles.
The following question was presented from the pulpit yesterday as I sat among the church: Is there an obstacle to your witness? I could list off a handful of things about myself right now that people {including myself} would consider an obstacle to my witness. If we’re completely honest, we’d all have to say that there’s something in our lives that’s an obstacle to our witness.
Let’s get real…people who want an excuse to refuse God will find one anyway.
I propose these questions instead: Are we holding on to Jesus, trusting Him, when every circumstance would encourage us to let go…to turn our backs on Him? Are we remembering that He is faithful even when we have obstacles to our witness in our lives? Are we telling others that He is faithful even when it doesn’t feel like He is?
If we’re busy perfecting our lives, focused on removing obstacles to our witness, we are focused on our behavior rather than on God’s faithfulness. Why is it so hard for us to realize that holiness is less about our behavior and more about Christ living through us?
If it’s about our behavior and our pursuit of holiness, the lyrics to “We Will Remember” should be:
We will remember…
- to read the Bible daily
- to have a daily quiet time
- to confess every unclean thought that crosses our minds
- to set aside an uninterrupted prayer time
- to focus on our behavior
No! We will remember the works of your hands…not our hands!
I dare to say that is in our obstacles to our witness that God is most faithful…that His strength is greatest in our weakness. He uses our obstacles to bring glory to Himself.
God received glory because of {not in spite of} Abraham’s obstacles, Jacob’s obstacles, Moses’ obstacles, David’s obstacles, Jonah’s obstacles, Peter’s obstacles.
The glory of God is not dependent on our behavior.
Shouldn’t our message be that in our obstacles, in our struggles, God is faithful? If people are looking to me to find perfect behavior before making a decision about God, I’ll beg them to look elsewhere. And I bet you would too. But if they’re looking to see if God is faithful even when I make every effort to screw up, I’ll beg them to know that God is absolutely faithful and trustworthy!
In the years to come, I will remember that He is the faithful one. What will you remember? Will you remember that you unceasingly tried to perfect your behavior, or that in the middle of your obstacles to your witness, He was faithful?
