“What have you done for me lately?” Have you ever thought this about someone or something? More than that, has anyone ever expressed this to you?
These words can be devastating. Too often we fail to appreciate, even forget, what was done in the past. ‘That was then – this is now!’ In the eyes of some, the present moment is all that matters.
This takes place on many fronts. We’re frustrated with our jobs, but then a nice pay raise or bonus comes and for a while we’re all smiles. Just a few weeks later, however, our doldrums return. Same old, same old. Sports fans feel exhilaration when their teams win the championship. But then next season arrives and if their team stumbles out of the gate, fair-weather fans are ready to fire the coach.
Children might get into an emotional snit when they’re not allowed to do something or their request for something at the store is denied. They forget about what mom let them do last week, or what dad brought home for them just days earlier. Forgetfulness can become the bane of contentment.
In the Scriptures, unvarnished as they are, we find one instance after another of God’s people developing a kind of “spiritual amnesia” during times of trial and trauma.
Take the people of Israel, for example. After suffering under slavery in Egypt for 400 years, God used Moses to extricate them from oppressive captivity. The Lord performed great miracles through Moses. Then there was the first Passover when the angel of death passed over their dwellings as firstborn were slain throughout the land. Alas, their memories were amazingly short.
Not long after the Israelites’ departure, Pharaoh smacked himself on the forehead and exclaimed, “What was I thinking?” He ordered his Egyptian army, horses and chariots to go after their departed ‘labor force.’ With the Egyptians in hot pursuit, the Israelites cried out and complained to Moses, “Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” (Exodus 14:12).
How did God respond to His petulant, forgetful chosen people? He parted the Red Sea, allowing them to cross it, and then sent the waters crashing back as the astounded Egyptians tried to advance on the seabed. No more Egyptian problem.
Just a few days later, Moses was leading the Israelites across a desert when they ran out of water. The only water they could find was bitter and undrinkable. Quickly the complaint department reopened for business. “So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, ‘What are we to drink?’” (Exodus 15:24). God silenced their complaints by instructing Moses to throw a piece of wood into the water, miraculously turning it into a refreshing fountain.
By that time the Israelites should have felt confident God was up to any challenge they might confront. Nope. About a month and a half after their exodus from Egypt, they were passing through another desert with their food supplies dwindling. Instead of being thankful for their new freedom, again they complained:
“In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and [his brother] Aaron. The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this deserve to starve this entire assembly to death’” (Exodus 16:2-3). Their spiritual amnesia was intensifying.
The Israelites’ complaints didn’t end there, but they weren’t the only ones in the Scriptures who struggled to remember the wonderful things God had done for them in the past. King David, in the midst of intense opposition, wrote these words: “In You our fathers put their trust; they trusted and You delivered them. They cried to You and were saved; in You they trusted and were not disappointed” (Psalm 22:4).
He was telling himself, ‘Hey, don’t forget all that God has already done!', trying to reassure himself that God would again deliver him from his troubles
Another time, in the midst of a song of praise David candidly acknowledged, “We have sinned, even as our fathers did; we have done wrong and acted wickedly. When our fathers were in Egypt, they gave no thought to Your miracles; they did not remember Your many kindnesses…” Psalm 106:6-7).
This forgetfulness didn’t stop with the Old Testament. One of Jesus’ most convicting assessments of His disciples came when impetuous Peter asked to step out onto the water after He saw the Lord walking on a stormy sea. When Jesus said, “Come,” Peter boldly stepped out of the boat.
Within moments, however, he “saw the wind” – the fierce spray whipping off the waves – and suddenly remembered that normal people don’t walk on water. When Peter began to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus extended His hand, caught him and said, “You of little faith…why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:25-30).
After all the many miracles they had seen Jesus perform, from feeding multitudes to healing the sick, from casting out demons to raising the dead, the disciples continued in “what have You done for us lately” mode.
“You of little faith – why did you doubt?” Has the Lord ever asked that of you when, after witnessing Him do incredible things in your life, you spiraled into panic and despair as soon as another crisis occurred in your life?
We all, to one degree or another, act like spiritual amnesiacs when our goings start getting tough. No matter what God has done for us in the past, we wrestle with unsettling doubts that He’ll come to our aid once more. Even though the Scriptures promise that He will.
When those moments come, we need to remember God’s words spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). We may struggle with spiritual amnesia, but the Lord never forgets.
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