MEMORIAL DAY DEVOTIONAL – May 25, 2020
“Remember“
Prayer: Holy God and Father, we give thanks everyday for Your gracious providence and merciful reign over all people. Especially today, we thank You for the men and women of our military that have so selflessly given their lives to ensure we may live to enjoy the freedoms we take advantage of each day. Help us to always remember that the government rests on Your shoulders, and even when we may or may not favor those in certain offices or some of the policies and decisions they make, that we still faithfully pray for them and remain good and faithful citizens as we are encouraged to do by Your Word. Amen.
Scripture – 2 Peter 1:3-15
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. 13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
Devotional:
As you may or may not be aware, Memorial Day, a day of remembering, began as “Decoration Day” just after the Civil War. It was a day set aside to decorate the graves of those some 600,000+ soldiers who died in the war. Whatever we do this weekend, it should be to do exactly what the name of this holiday is about; we should remember.
You hear it said almost every Memorial Day, and rightly so, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The words of poet and novelist George Santayana. We take time to remember, to have a memorial, for those who have given their lives for our nation’s freedoms. We take time not just to remember that they died, but what they died for and why they volunteered themselves for such a noble and honorable task.
Our memory and the ability to remember is an incredible gift from God. In fact, as Christians, as people of faith and people of God, we are a memorial people. Our entire hope and salvation involves remembering.
Going all the way back Genesis 9, God put a rainbow in the sky that God gave to remind Noah and His family of the covenant He made to not only never destroy all living things through a flood but also the covenant to redeem all mankind. The Sabbath was a memorial to Israel’s freedom from Egyptian slavery (Deuteronomy 5:15), and the church switched it to Sundays as a memorial to Christ’s resurrection and our freedom from sin. Israel’s great gathering feast days were memorials (Exodus 13:3). And now each time a local church gathers, even if it is online, each Lord’s Supper celebration (1 Corinthians 11:24–26), each baptism, each Christmas celebration, and each Easter celebration is a memorial.
Jesus said in John 14, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” The Apostle Peter said in our text for today in verse 13, “I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder.”
Notice that when Scripture talks about remembering, it isn’t talking about a purely cognitive function like remembering your multiplication tables. Peter said that when we remember we should be stirred up, something should happen within us and something should happen through us when we remember. That word Peter uses in the Greek is the word “diegeiro”, and it literally means to arouse, to wake up, to render active.
Listen again to what Peter says we are to remember, “His [God] divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”
When we daily remember the incredible sacrifice Jesus made for us, for all mankind, and when we remember who He has made us to be as children of God, and when we remember by reading God’s Word and praying in His Word, then we can’t help but be stirred up, awakened, and rendered active to live out our faith with virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, affection, and love. Living a life of faithful remembrance of what God has done for us in Christ, freeing us from sin, death and the devil, is what makes us grateful for those who have sacrificed their lives to protect the exercise of our faith in Christ and our ability to witness Jesus openly and freely…because more important than our earthly freedoms, is our eternal freedom, and that only comes through faith in Christ. So Peter says that when we remember what has been done for us, that is what “keeps you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
I very much like how author John Bloom says it in his devotion on Memorial Day,
“Remembering God’s past grace is necessary to fuel our faith in God’s future grace for us. This makes the memory one of God’s most profound, mysterious, and merciful gifts granted to us. God designed it to be a means of preserving (persevering) grace for his people. We neglect it at our own peril.
The future of the church, globally and locally, and of each Christian depends largely on how well we remember the gospel of Jesus, all his precious and very great promises, and the successes and failures of church history.
So as we commemorate Memorial Day as Americans, let us do it with profound gratitude for the extraordinary common grace given to us when men and women laid their lives down for the sake of America’s survival. And let us remember the past evils that we may not repeat them in the future.
And as Christians, let us make every day, as long as it is called today, a memorial day (Hebrews 3:13). Let us “take care lest [we] forget the Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:12). Let us “remember Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:8).
Have a blessed weekend in remembrance of the sacrifices of the many who died for our nation and its freedom, but most importantly, May God bless you and encourage you through His Holy Spirit as He brings to your remembrance the saving words of Jesus who gave Himself for us as the only saving sacrifice, and who said in John 10, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.” That is exactly what Christ did. He rose victorious for you and for me.
Thanks for joining me for another time in God’s Word, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today, and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
