"Therefore remember"(Eph 2:11)

We are by nature a forgetful people. We build memorial hospitals, buy large headstones, and tie strings on our fingers to avoid forgetting things we ought to remember. Yet often the most fundamental part of a Christian's life is forgotten, left in a distant past overgrown by many years of neglect. Do you remember your conversion? The Bible indicates that remembering our conversion is key to maintaining the spiritual vigor we need today.

Remember where you were. The horrible spiritual state we were in pushed us toward Christ. Do you remember? "Therefore remember that you…that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world"(Eph 2:11-12). Despite "having no hope" and "being without God in the world" at that time, we now stand right with God! Do you remember the awful despair and guilt you felt? That dirty feeling that no bath could take away? Jesus took it away! "For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared"(Titus 3:3-4). Have you forgotten what you used to be? We were awful people-enemies of God (Rom 5:10)-full of sin and rebellion. Do you remember the fear of being lost eternally? Do you remember the gratitude that stemmed from realizing that Jesus paid your debt and would accept you as you were? Do you remember where you were?

Remember what you felt. Do you remember great joy and relief? The ability to sleep at night without fear? "Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing"(Acts 8:39). Those intense emotions-like the feeling of a finally cleansed conscience (1 Pet 3:21)-are vital to our spiritual welfare. When our relationship with God becomes ordinary, our service to Him dead, and our zeal for Him lost, likely it is because we have forgotten the joy of our salvation! When David sinned with Bathsheba, he prayed "restore to me the joy of Your salvation"(Ps 51:12). Do you remember the fresh zeal with which you viewed life? There were people we needed to share the gospel with, changes we needed to make, and a Bible that needed our attention. Have we forgotten these things? Have we forgotten what we felt?

Remember how you changed. As we began to put away things that didn't belong in the life of a Christian, we were eager and excited to be following our Lord. Do you remember? "For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God"(1 Thess 1:9). There were changes, weren't there? Would it have been alright for these Thessalonians to go back to the idols they once served? Would it be OK for us to return to the sinful things that put us in need of salvation? When we were converted, we began to put off the old man of sin and put on the new man in Christ (Eph 4:22-24). Can we go back now? If we fail to continue in Christ's way, it is clear we have forgotten: "For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins"(2 Pet 1:9).

Praise the Lord for saving you! Don't ever forget! ___Jacob Hudgins