The God Who Never Forgets

  THANK YOU FATHER!         YOU NEVER FORGET!

 

            Alzheimer’s disease is the 6^th leading cause of death in the United States. More people die from Alzheimer’s than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. More than 5 million American’s currently live with Alzheimer’s. Every 67 seconds someone in the United States develops the disease. 1 in 3 aging adults die with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. Women are at the epicenter of the Alzheimer’s epidemic. Almost 2/3 of Americans with Alzheimer’s disease are women. Women in their 60’s are about 2 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s over the rest of their lives than breast cancer. More than 60% of Alzheimer’s & dementia caregivers are women. 15 million people provide around-the-clock support for these individuals. 

 

                                                - Alzheimer's Association, 2013

 

           If these statistics are not despairing enough, the disease is affecting more and more younger people.  Symptoms can be seen in people as early as 30 years of age. It has no racial, cultural or vocational boundaries. Pastors, professors, doctors, and every other walk of life have been effected with Alzheimer’s or dementia. We do not usually think about these things, but I think it is good to prepare ourselves for disease and death.  Knowing what we think and knowing what we think we will do is very helpful in planning for old age.

 

http://youtu.be/BXnZt5VMjZY 

 

            Many usually find confidence in going to Heaven and meeting God there and ignore the present possibilities. Many find comfort in knowing God is Creator and made everything in the very beginning. Less can grasp God as the ever-present reality in life. Trusting God today with how things are is a challenge for most, and especially when things do not go as we had hoped. There are several principles we can learn and remember when things seem to go wrong.

 

            First, the Israelite’s were slaves of Egypt and Moses was God’s chosen leader to rescue them and lead them out of that country. Moses, meeting God for the first time, wasn’t sure of himself and wasn’t sure about who this God is. Moses boldly asks, “Who shall I say sent me?” In which God responded, “Tell them I AM sent you” (Exodus 3:13-14). “I Am” is a present tense verb. God is a present action, a present help in time of need. God wasn’t just Moses’ Great I AM. He is yours and mine as well. He promises to go with you to the uttermost parts of the earth (Matthew 28). He promises to walk with you through the “Valley of Death: (Psalm 23). 

 

            Second,  in Psalm 139:1-12 the Psalmist says, “O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.” God can be found in every situation and circumstance. God can be found in any place no matter how dark the experience may be.  

 

             Third, God suggests that He sticks closer to you then a mother. “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you” (Isaiah 49:15).  Can a mother forget her children? They are not supposed to but Alzheimer’s many times robs a mother of these memories. But not God, it is impossible for God to forget you or your mother! Remember, it is easy many times to accept God as Creator. It is equally as easy to accept Jesus as the God of Heaven and we hope to see him some day. But it is hardest to believe God is the “Great I AM”. It is hard to believe that God is walking with you in your current situation, but Scriptures undeniably says otherwise. Trust God in your circumstances!!

 

            To trust God in your circumstances; you have to believe God is perfect and good. Can a perfect God do anything that is not 100% perfect? The religious person who refuses to accuse God of any wrong doing would suggest He cannot do anything but what is 100% perfect, but what about this seemingly imperfect world? If this world doesn’t seem to be perfect to you, and you believe God cannot create or do anything imperfect, then the only alternative is THIS IS THE MOST PERFECT WAY TO THE MOST PERFECT PLACE!!

 

            God “subjected the world to futility in hope” (Romans 8:20), God warned us about the perilous times ahead (Matthew 10:16-25; 24), Paul said “if you live a Godly life then you will be persecuted” (2Timothy 2:12), James said to “consider it all joy when you fall into various trials” (James 1:2), John said in this world “you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer” (John 16:33), and Peter said, “don’t be surprised when you are going through fiery trials and don’t accept persecution as strange fire [or strange worship]”. In fact, Jesus “learned obedience by what He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8) and if Jesus learned obedience by what He suffered, then, you should rest assured that you will learn obedience the same way. I know no other way to get through God’s perfect way to His perfect place than, to embrace every trying circumstance as a chance to obey in heartfelt worship to God for allowing you to suffer as Jesus suffered.

 

             In a ministry to the aging you will see the grace of God in families as they face life’s tragedies with holy boldness. Just as the Disciples wondered upon seeing a man blind from birth, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” And what is a work of God but to believe in him (John 6:29). Within life’s tragedies we see families believing, trusting, praying, and worshipping. We witness God at work in the lowest and perhaps loneliest time of a family’s life.