don't have memory loss

- Just something encouraging that I read the other day from Nicole Johnson. -

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Romans 15:4

It's been a long time since I've ridden my bike, but I don't think it would take me long at all to remember how. In fact, just throwing my leg over to the other side, sitting down on the seat, and putting my hands on the handlebars would probably do it. It would all come back to me.

Physiologists tell us this is muscle memory. Your muscles learn just like your mind does. You don't forget how to ride a bike physically, because your muscles remember. You train your body and it holds that training, just like when you study for a test and your mind remembers the information. Or used to, before aspartame.

Interestingly, there is such a thing as emotional memory as well. Things that have happened in the past, good and bad, remain in our emotional memory. And we have the unique ability to train our emotional memory to keep hoping, so that, just like riding a bike, we never forget how.

When we're starting out on a new venture, it's normal to feel both excitement and anxiety. We try to look forward and figure out how things can work out well, but we can't see ahead, so we get scared. We sit on the dock, worrying that when the time comes to hoist the sail we'll forget how...and we'll be lost at sea with no rescue in sight.

Perhaps the best way to handle prevoyage jitters is not to try to see the future, but to look to the past. To remember all that has gone before and all the times God has filled our sails and brought us safely back to harbor.

In the Old Testament God was constantly calling his people to remember. He would say, "Look back at the past. When you were staring at a wall of water in front of you and an army coming up beside you, do you remember what happened? When you were in the wilderness with nothing to eat, do you remember who fed you? Build up your muscle memory of hope by looking back at the way I have always provided for you."

Where has God met you before when you thought you were alone? How has he shown himself faithful to you when you were lost? How many times did the money come or the help arrive or the comfort appear when you needed it the most? Stop trying to muster up hope for what's ahead, when you can look back and be reassured. You won't fear the future as much when you recognize and acknowledge his faithfulness in the past.

When it comes to trusting God, or putting our hope in him, the Nike ad wins the day: "Just do it." We learn more about trust only by trusting. We grow in our hope only by hoping. None of these jewels comes to us by simply reading or thinking about it. We have to get on board and sail out to find the treasure.

If God has come through for you in the past, and it's pretty safe to say he has, then the memory will still be there. Let it fuel your hope. Let it whisper in your ear that this time is just like the last time when God came through, and you can trust him. Let him remind you that he will be faithful once again, because he is God. Trust, trust, and, yes - trust.

Just because you haven't hoped in a while or trusted recently doesn't mean you don't know how. You just have to take your hope out of yourself and put it back in God. Just like you have done many times before. You don't forget how. Just throw your leg over to the other side of the bike, sit down on the seat of remembering, put your hands on the handlebars of hope, and it will all come back to you.

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And one of my favorite verses:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

posted by eurorebs at 10:32 AM