Today's Passage - 2 Timothy 2:8 Part 2

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english 2 Timothy 2:8   Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel.   Remembering Jesus Christ is not only an occasional event,  we need to remember Him always.   In the original text, "remember" is a command in the form of present participle.  We may be surprised that how often we can forget about our Lord! In reality, our memory is not trustworthy - not only we would forget Him in good times, but also in times of difficulties. We retain our memories only on  those  we should not remember, yet  forget about those we should retain such as in reciting Biblical verses -   after reading over 20 times we still cannot memorize them; we, therefore,  make excuses due to our age. But when somebody said something offensive, we would remember it for the rest of our lives.  We often called ourselves Christians, but yet we forget what the Lord is like in our lives.    When in despair, can you remember His trust worthiness?  When in hate, can you remember His forgiveness?  When in joy, can you remember His grace? That is the reason the author of Hebrews encouraged the churches under persecution, " Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart "  We should , therefore, remember Him always  so that He is not only the center of our lives, but also the center of our memories.  A psychologist once suggested that our action today is a reflection our memory which, often times, restrains us from leading a victorious life.   Some people in the church are afraid to practice loving one another because they had been hurt in the past, the shadow of which hovers over their lives causing them to kept people at a distance in order to feel safe. Others in the church are afraid to serve because they were hurt by their past failures. Our lives are often dictated by our past memories preventing us from emerging from our "shells" and be used by God.   We should remember our Lord always and let Him come into our memories.  Our Lord overcomes the test of time; He can soothe all our pain with His love and forgiveness.  Remembering the Lord always is the key to overcoming our difficulties.                           Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, we thank you for being the Lord of our lives and also the Lord of our memories.  Fill our spirit with your love so that our strength will be renewed in remembering you every day in our lives. With thanks we pray, in the victorious name of Jesus, Amen!