Tuesday, August 3, Creating a Reminder

So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

The point that Jesus makes here is one of knowledge. Effectively he is making the point that we know better. This would have called on the rich history of Israel, all the times that God proved himself, parting seas, stopping rivers, supplying manna each morning, making walls fall down, water flow from a rock and consuming an offering with fire. Jesus is saying. “don’t live as ones who don’t know this, who haven’t experienced it.” The same it true for us. In the midst of surrender as we learn in walk in trust, we can call on the times that we have seen God prove himself, the answered prayers, the moments when he has met us in our need and know that this is the same God who knows our need now.

Throughout the history of Israel, when the people saw God move in very incredible and awe inspiring ways, they would commemorate the moment setting up a monument. Read Joshua 3:14 – 4:7, for one such example:

14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, 2 "Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight."

4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."

These stones where meant to serve the people of Israel as a reminder of this moment. When you and I are facing doubt and worry, we need to look back at the moments in our lives when God feels so real, proving himself faithful to us and draw on that strength to make it through the day.

What memorial can you set up set up for yourself or your family? Allow that reality to be a source of strength when the concerns of this world begin to overwhelm.

Sterling Moore
Pastor of High School Ministries