I WILL NOT FORGET

Today's reading: Amos 1-4

"This is what the Lord says: The people of Damascus have sinned again and again, and I will not forget it." Amos 1:3 NLT

This same verse is repeated another seven times in the first and second chapters of Amos, but with different cities mentioned.

Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, Judah and Israel are all mentioned in separate places for their sins against God.

And the verses that follow? Those verse are the warnings of upcoming punishment. From the hand of God. For their disobedience. By their own choosing. In order to show them His power and might.

One could get 'hung up' on the disciplinarian side of God after reading a portion of Scripture like this.

One might believe that because God 'will not forget', these places have no hope, no glimmer of help or rescue in their futures. That they are forever doomed to be on God's naughty list.

It's true God does not forget. Ever. But in knowing that, we must also know that once you come to Him--in repentance, with a seeking heart, in order to be made right with Him--He doesn't forget that either!

For me, that means on my worst days of living for Him, He still remembers when I asked Him to be my Savior at a small country church's altar!

It means He remembers that I am the frail, weak, as-human-as-human-can-get creation He made!

He also remembers my prayers each morning to Him. For His guidance through the day. With each person I meet. That I live in glory and honor of Him!

He will never forget.

That's comforting and reassuring, not foreboding and anxiety-provoking.