Proverbs 3:1-4

¹My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, ²for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity. ³Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. ⁴Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.

Write your Name

As Christians, we may also use the same Bible versions. Do you write your name in your Bible? At one time, a Christian left his Bible and nobody returned it; he said, “It has no name in it!” That incident made me remember to write my name in my Bible.

Have you ever left or lost something, and it was returned to you by somebody?

As limited humans, forgetfulness is natural. All mankind can experience lapses, especially when we are very focused on a particular situation. Presence of mind may fail momentarily also when we are emotionally affected or disturbed, which is why thieves and scammers can take advantage of emotionally disturbed victims.

What preventive steps do you normally do to secure things that are important to you? You would place them in secured areas where you can easily access them, right?

Wallet, cellphone, purse, ID cards, debit or credit cards are very valuable; keys of home, car or office are very important and essentially useful to career and lifestyle. And if you forget and lost your valuable things, you can be emotionally disturbed. Therefore, you have to remind yourselves very often to remember and secure your valuable things.

Can you agree that forgetting valuable biblical lessons may disturb us spiritually?

The Scripture reminds us to remember and keep godly commands in our heart.

1.  Remember

¹My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, ²for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity.

How strong can you believe that keeping biblical command will brings many years of life in peace and prosperity? For sure, it is by faith in God that we believe his promise.

Interestingly, when the Scripture warns, “Do not forget,” those admonitions are biblical lessons and concerns that we forget naturally. We hope that we may always remember biblical lessons; but it takes godly efforts to accomplish anything godly. We have to be dependent always upon the Lord to accomplish his godly purposes in our life.

We are admonished to remember biblical lessons in our heart and not just in our mind. We memorize word for words and recite them from memory. But to remember in our heart, we have to practically apply biblical lessons and teach them. Of course, we have to seek godly inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God to remember his commands.

Teaching others what may have inspired you will help you remember them.

King David testifies on how godly truth became his guide for life in Psalm 25 1-5:  ¹In you, Lord my God, I put my trust. ²I trust in you; do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. ³No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame, but shame will come on those who are treacherous without cause.

 ⁴Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. ⁵Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.

Before David became king of Israel, he may have felt ashamed of his situation. He was a shepherd while his contemporaries may have joined the army like his brothers. But David trusted the Lord anyways, and he was victorious king of Israel. David had personally proven that the Lord won’t let anyone who trusts him be put to shame.

Do you feel embarrassed or feel ashamed if you haven’t achieved what others have achieved? Do you want to attain something that others had attained? Such embarrassment is condemnation from the sinful nature. You won’t like condemnation.

How should we avoid condemning shame or embarrassment of anything?

Fullness of life that Christ offers has no condemnation. If we let him perform his authority, his Holy Spirit produces fruit of joyful peace in us instead. It declares in Romans 8:1, ¹There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The Lord did not promise that we won’t experience problem. We can still have peace of mind in the midst of problem if we keep the word of God in our heart. Which word should we remember? Remember biblical lessons that may have inspired you.

Before David became king of Israel, his life was guided by the godly principles. He testified in Psalm 119:105, ¹⁰⁵Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

When David was still a lowly shepherd, the word of God was his life principles. When he became popular and powerful king, the word of God was his guide while performing his responsibility as king of Israel. The life story of the great King David is biblical proof that trust in the Lord and his word brings great life, prosperity and peace.

Here are personal assessments for everyone: Ever since you put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, did your life become much better than before you became Christian? Compare your Christian life when you follow the Lord Jesus Christ and when you follow your personal desire, obsession and inclination – which one do you like much better?

Have you observed how you were affected spiritually during the pandemic? Did you desire to attend church activities more energetically or otherwise?

When the Scripture reminds not to forget biblical lessons, our human tendency is to forget. It requires godly inspiration from the Holy Spirit to remember godly principles. We are also admonished to write or register them in our hearts. How could we do that?

2.  Register

³Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. ⁴Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.

How can good name favor? Promotion or job application or when you ask other people, good name is favored. Love and faithfulness equals good name and favor.

We have learned that love and faithfulness are fruit of the Holy Spirit, right?

So, how can we bind love and faithfulness around our neck? How can we write or register them on the tablet of our heart? We should ask the Holy Spirit of Christ for help.

Do you wear gold chain or necklace around your neck? Valuable jewelries are exhibits of prestige or material status. Similarly, love and faithfulness are priceless status or prestige for genuine believers. Write or register that on the tablets of your heart.

In biblical times, writing tablets could be made of stone, wood or clay. For much more important matters, stone tablet was better option than wood or clay tablets. Obviously, stones can be preserved much longer than tablet made out of wood or clay.

Just imagine how much effort had been exerted when writing on stone tablets.

Similarly, much effort should be exerted to remember the word of God. We have to practice it regularly. Certainly, rest is necessary after physical workout; and, the Lord Jesus Christ offers rest in him when we follow his teaching. In Matthew 11:29-30: ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Gentleness and humility are restful; arrogance and harshness cause pressure.

Do you feel sleepy during sermons? Someone commented after he observed church attendees sleeping during his sermon: “Well, the preacher must be boring!”  Someone replied, “I guess, they just practically applied how to find rest in the Lord.”

Kidding aside, have you ever found it restful when you follow the Lord in humility and gentleness? We worry about what other s may say; that’s pride at work on our part.

When we don’t worry about life, it’s a practical display of spiritual rest. Certainly, it is restful to be sufficient in the Lord. Can you identify with King David in Psalm 23:1-2?  ¹The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. ²He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, ³he refreshes my soul.

We are advised to remember and not forget godly commands to sense refresher of our weary soul and avoid worry. What do you do as reminder of what you’ve heard? How do you keep biblical lessons in your heart?

Some of you write on their journal notebook passages or phrases that may have inspired them or touched their inner being. That’s very clever move.

Let’s read meditatively what the Lord says in Joshua 1:7-8, ⁷Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Prosperity and success are practical offshoots of remembering the words of God.

We can easily remember godly principles of love and faithfulness when we write or register them in the tablets of our heart by God’s grace, of course. How do we that?

Meditation, reciting verbally or in the mind help us to remember biblical lessons that may have inspired us.

Practice meditating on God’s word that may have caught your attention.

You will surely find your life become much better when you follow the Lord!

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