BACK TO THE OVERFLOW (remembering not to forget)

 In the cool wind of a quiet friday afternoon, as I packed in readiness to travel to China, I felt a chill of uncertainty in my spine. Right from home I was pensive. As I sat waiting to board the bus I tried to chat with my mum and act brave. My mum had seen me off to the bus station in my small town in Ghana where my family lives. At the station, as she is so used to doing, she bolted off right before my eyes in haste. I looked on curiously to see what she was about. The bus was still waiting for more passengers so I waited inside. I realized my mum was trying to call a woman in the far corner of the bus, to ask her if she knew where she could find a pair of bathroom slippers to buy. Bathroom slippers? Only my mum would think of that at this time, was the thought that came up. I shook my head to let her know it was not necessary. But, she went all the way to the roadside shop to get me one and came insisting, "kukua you need to take bathroom slippers with you". I just smiled.

Indeed when I got to China, I lodged in a hotel at night and the slippers did serve me RIGHT. Even after I settled in, I still kept these "bus station slippers" my mum had lovingly bought for me, as a memory of the love of family and where I was coming from, and in appreciation for how far the Lord had brought me. I wore these slippers sometimes just to give me the memory and warm sensation of home. Whenever I looked at those slippers, I remembered my mum and the moment we shared at the bus station. With time that memory became more and more significant to me, as I realized that I had to keep the memory of moments that proved God's faithfulness to me. 

Indeed we all ought to keep memories in our hearts of what the Lord has done and where He has brought us from. You ought to keep an image in your mind, a memento of your day of breakthrough, your day of deliverance, mercy and grace. You ought to keep that memory and visit that place from time to time to keep you also from being full of yourself or forgetting the God of your salvation.

Psalm 37:49 says 

Salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord, He is their stronghold in time of trouble.

Unfortunately, most of us have forgotten the God of our deliverance and have closed the chapter or "moved on" from the point of our deliverance such that the power of that memory is no more. We are no longer sensitive to the awesome power of our testimony. That is a weapon gone rusty. Some people just say of their journey "ooh humble beginnings, you see...."and that is all. Just a shallow reference, and no deep regard for the testimony behind their story. Are you really grateful or have you become all too familiar with your own story? Some people started from where you are but are not where you are!  Have you become all too successful, or too grown or too big in your own eyes to go down on your knees and pick the pebbles of your past struggles and little victories? Because these will serve as a combat tool for the season ahead. Do you remember how the Lord opened the doors and answered your prayer? Or are those childish emotional memories to you now? If so, that is a shame. King David in all his majesty, after he occupied the throne did not forget the God who was with Him as a shepherd boy. 

2 Samuel 22:1 And David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.

Friend, do you remember the Lord who delivered you? Have you taken note of your testimonies?  Do you hold it dear to your heart? Have you discovered the power in it and the battles it can help you combat? Sing your song of deliverance today like David did and look onto the God of your salvation for what lies ahead. But before you ask God for anything else in prayer, first REMEMBER NOT TO FORGET! Get back to the overflow of your testimony and draw from the source of your strength, draw form that rugged place from where you have come by the Grace of God..

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