Are We There Yet? Devotional by UnitedSample

TITLE: God Song

LYRIC: “My God is the wonder working God, from ancient skies down to that cross, the empty grave to Kingdom come.” - God Song

SCRIPTURES:

• Deuteronomy 10:21 NIV
• Psalm 8:3-4 NIV
• 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 NIV

DEVOTIONAL:

Throughout Israel’s exodus from Egypt and their journey to the “promised land”, God’s people saw His miraculous power time and time again. Yet, despite what their eyes had seen, the deliverance that had come their way, the provision God graciously poured out, Israel (also time and time again) forgot the Lord’s faithfulness and miraculous works. Psalm 78:11 (NIV) says, “They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.”

Unfortunately, this problem of forgetting is not only common to Israel. We, too, can easily forget what our eyes have seen. Yet, all throughout the Old Testament, Israel is told to “remember” what God had done: their deliverance from Egypt, the miracles He had performed, to remember His laws and statutes, and to walk in His ways (Deuteronomy 8:17-19). In the New Testament, Jesus told His Disciples that the Holy Spirit would remind them of all that He has said (John 14:26) and to take communion “in remembrance of Him” (Luke 22:19). Much of the New Testament letters were written to “remind” believers of the Gospel, truth, and how to live.

So why is remembering so important for us?

Because it reminds us who God is and informs us how to live. This is why it is good for us to pray or sing things like, “My God is the wonder-working God, from ancient skies down to that cross, the empty grave to Kingdom come.” Words like these can be powerful confessions of God’s goodness, faithfulness over time, and they can also stir us to faith-filled expectation for the future. Remembering God’s powerful work reminds us, not simply of what we believe, but who God is: ever faithful, wonder-working, unchanging, steadfast in love, completely loyal, and fully able, to name a few. The entire Christian faith is staked on a miraculous event: Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). We do not simply believe in the miracle of the cross and empty grave once or a few times in our faith, but constantly and in all times. We view life through the lens of Jesus risen, and this teaches us to remember God in how we live, in how we view the world, and in the life to come. Christians, after all, are resurrection people, and our God is a wonder-working God.