The Sh’ma: Forgetting God
The sin of forgetting that God is God, and we are not seems to be getting more prevalent. Nowadays, a lot of people seem to be abandoning their faith. They are forfeiting their eternal future by forgetting the incredible wonder of God’s grace. At some point, such forgetting becomes willful and intentional.
Spiritual absent-mindedness does not seem like much of an offense. According to human law, it is not as egregious as murder, incest, or rape. Nobody will go to jail for forgetting God. It’s not a felony in a single state, It’s not even a misdemeanor.
Besides, God is easy to forget.
Just stop thinking about him.
Stop praying to him. Stop reading his Word. Stop thanking him for what he has done for you. With very little effort, we can mistakenly conclude that we can get along without God or his promises. But here’s the thing about forgetting who God is and what he has done for us– once an individual loses contact with God’s life-giving Word, it is hard to start remembering him again. It becomes harder to think of needing forgiveness when there’s no one to be held accountable to. When the hearing of his just and righteous voice has ended, those who come after us—our children and grandchildren—may never learn they have a savior from sin because they simply won’t know how great their need for such a savior is.
Forgetting God has eternal consequences. But the damage is not limited to the spiritual harm that forgetful people face. When parents allow it to happen in their own lives, the drift into spiritual amnesia is reinforced in the hearts of their sinful children.
Forgetting God is quite natural for anyone born a sinner. It happens to you and me every day.
Our charts all look the same. That is why daily contact or even moment-to-moment contact with God is so important. When children see that a parent has forgotten God, they are more easily convinced that their own faith life isn’t worth pursuing. The seeds of this kind of doubt make it more likely these children will fall away from God. That is what God said would happen to the Israelites if they ever forgot him. Then it happened, just as he said it would. (Exodus 20:4-5; Deuteronomy 6:10-12).
GROUP DISCUSSION
- How do you and I forget God, even when we confess to being his children?
- What spiritual activities can strengthen our faith to resist the devil’s temptations to forget God?
- Why is it wise to include these activities in our everyday routine?
