July 7
“’Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life…’” (Deuteronomy 4:9)
A few days ago I mentioned five possible reasons why we can be so determined and confident to overcome temptation one minute, and then be so easily deceived and such a willing participant in sin just a short time later: (1) We are double-minded, (2) we so easily forget, (3) we make provisions for the flesh, (4) we become overconfident, (5) we are undisciplined and untrained in righteous thinking and behavior. I am sure there are others, but we will briefly discuss these five. The last few days we have been discussing double-mindedness, so today we will discuss the second reason.
(2) We so easily forget. I am not sure about you, but I am amazed at how easily I can be unaware of things and become fuzzy on things that were so clear in my mind earlier in the day or week. I have good intentions, and I can be excited about following and serving the Lord one day, but then I go to sleep or get involved in a task that consumes my time and energy, and the next thing I know my zeal has evaporated. It is simply gone. I may even have to struggle to recall what I was so excited about earlier and why. My mind so easily gets distracted on the things of this earth, and the things above rapidly fade from view.
I am very forgetful, and unless I have written goals and plans, unless I write down and keep in front of me what I want the Lord to do in me and hopefully through me, unless I have written prayer requests or somehow ensure that I don’t forget to ask God daily for certain critical things, I will often forget them altogether. I can get excited about a new insight or a new discipline or a new goal I want to achieve, but if I don’t write it down and keep it in a place where I will see it again, it is often gone. I won’t remember it perhaps for weeks or months later.
When it comes to overcoming temptation, I can be excited and determined to never sin in a particular way again, and I can even write down some of the pathways and stumbling blocks that I know that I should avoid and have a good defensive plan, but unless I capture this in writing, and unless I make a concerted effort to keep it in front of me, I will simply forget it and continue stumbling in the same ways I have in the past. After I sin again, then I remember my ideas and former determination, but that is not the time that I want all of this coming back to me! I want to have my plan and God-ward focus ever before me to prevent me from sinning in the first place. That is the only strategy that will work for us.
I hope everyone else reading this is much better at this than I am, but if you are at all like me in this regard, it is essential that you write things down and devise a way to keep it in front of you daily. Typing it up, printing it out, and laminating a card or sheet of paper with you plan on it is very helpful, provided you review it daily. Don’t worry about making it perfect, just get something down on paper and get in the habit of reviewing it daily. Don’t forget to don’t forget!