Sunday Sermon
Rev. James T. Aker,State chaplain, the American Legion
Friday, August 29, 2008
“The people worshiped the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days
of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work
that the Lord had done for Israel. ”
— Judges 2:7
Part of our learning to see deeply into our character, involves a constant reviewing of all that God has done for us in the past. Whenever the people of Israel remembered what God had done, they remained faithful and walked “a righteous path.” When they forgot, they began to go astray. It is the same for us today: remembering helps us to walk in the Presence of God.
Life goes so fast today that most of us don’t spend as much time remembering the past as people once did. We don’t sit on the front porch after dinner and while away the hours until bedtime talking about our fathers and mothers, aunts and uncles, siblings and cousins, and what we all did in previous years. We have grown accustomed to being entertained by television, or being busy surfing the internet, or talking on our cell phones. For many, just reading a good book requires using up time we don’t think we can spare. Our orientation is toward the present and the future, and so we rush breathlessly onward, seldom realizing why we are vaguely unhappy and why life seems to be out of control.
That’s why it is important, if we really desire to evaluate our lives with inner vision, that we review the past and learn from it. Someone has written, “He who does not know history is doomed to repeat it.” Saying this another way: if we don’t understand the past and what has occurred in it, we will make the same mistakes as before, and remain helpless, as we are carried along by the flow of events.
It is especially important to remember what God has done for us: the food we have each day, the jobs we have held, the homes where we have lived, the friends along the way who have befriended us, the illness and problems we’ve survived, the families who have remained by our side in good times and bad, the memories of our service to our country, and all the experiences which have shaped and made us what we are today.
This is an important part of the panorama of blessing and growth that is woven into the fabric of our lives. When we take time to remember, we will sense just how much God has guided us, and understand that He has always had a master plan for us to follow, although we may not have realized this along the way. This insight should cause us to offer Him praise, as we come to understand that life is really purposeful and good!
Prayer for the people
Forgive me, dear Lord, if I have failed to remember all the good things
You have done in my life. Teach me to go back over them daily, that I
may walk in your Presence forever. Amen.
• “Sunday Sermon” is a forum for Emporia area ministers to share their sermons, thoughts and observations. This week’s sermon is from the Rev. James T. Akers of Madison is the state chaplain for the American Legion.