Meditating on God’s word is an ancient command and tradition. Joshua 1:8:

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Of course, not everyone during Joshua’s time, or even Christ’s time would have access to their own personal copies of the scripture. The idea was that they would know it and remember it. It would be a constant reminder to them.

Today, we have the same need and command to remember God’s word. And our memory hasn’t gotten any better. In fact, with the instant nature of the internet and entertainment, it’s probably gotten worse.

This is why, even though actually reading the bible every day is not exactly a biblical command, we should do it daily. With our plethora of resources, it’s likely the best way we can fulfill the commands to remember God’s word.

There’s just no good excuse not to.

Toward the end of Deuteronomy before Israel crosses over into the promised land, God gives a song to Moses which is intended to be a sharp reminder in the people’s ear of their wickedness and proneness to sin. But more importantly, it’s stark contrast to God’s mercy and grace on his people.

Deuteronomy 31:19-21:

"Now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel. For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant. And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring). For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give."

The song, which comes in the following chapter, is delivered to be a reminder and to deliver conviction to the wandering soul. God has been merciful, yet is a God of wrath.

This, of course, reminds me of my own inclination to please myself and my own constant need to remember the Gospel of Jesus, which is given for similar reasons yet from a very different direction.

The Gospel reminds us not only that we are sinful beings, and that God is a God of wrath, but also that he is gracious and patient. It is not his wrath that will lead us to repentance, but his grace! Remembering this can give us the confidence and strength to stand and trust God to sanctify us and conform us to his own image.

About a year ago I posted a review of a book by Milton Vincent called A Gospel Primer for Christians.

The book’s aim is this very thing. To help Christians remember the basic, strength giving, tenets of the Gospel. It begins with an explanation of the Gospel and concludes with a simple rehearsal of those truths for Christians to remember on a regular basis.

For me, this book has been a great blessing toward this end. It’s usually less than $10 and worth every penny.

Much like Moses’ song delivered to Israel to remind them, we can use similar tools to remember Jesus’ Gospel and find strength to move foreword even in the face of our own opposition.

Psalm 19:14:

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
   be acceptable in your sight,
   O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

I love this prayer from the tail end of Psalm 19. I often forget that what my mind does secretly can be as important as what my hands do openly. Every time I read this psalm, I’m reminded that the Lord is not only interested in what we do but also very interested in what we think and feel.

Not only in our actions, but in all of these things we should seek to please the Lord. And not out of compulsion, but out of gratitude for the salvation we’ve been freely given by our rock and redeemer.

On the way in from an outing this evening, I came across this guy making a web in the walkway up to my house. A pretty heavy storm had just passed through. I was surprised that his habitat wasn’t destroyed.

I don’t usually shoot nature stuff, but I couldn’t pass up this opportunity.

As I was setting up the shot, I gently sent a mist over the web to rewet the parts that were probably going to be invisible to the camera. When I did that, the spider curled up in a ball and wasn’t looking so photogenic. So, for some reason I thought it might help to gently blow on he web from a few feet away.

This didn’t work. I don’t know why I thought it would. Instead, the spider bolted for the outer edge of the web, then eventually out towards a tree.

Frustrated, I covered my gear with plastic to keep it from getting wet and went inside hoping the spider would get comfortable and return. Obviously, it did. But while I was inside waiting, it occurred to me that one of the elements of photography that I love is the ability to control nearly every aspect of a photograph.

If I don’t like where light is coming from, then put it somewhere else. If I don’t like who I’m shooting, find someone else. Props, scenery, colors? With studio style photography, it’s all up to me. The unpredictable element of nature photography only took a matter of minutes to frustrate me.

See, unfortunately, I’m a person who tends to thrive on the ability to control the circumstances around me. Although sometimes it’s a good thing, other times It gets me in trouble—usually in the form of losing sight of the big picture.

As I was thinking about the spider and how there was really nothing I could do to get it to come back and sit where I wanted it to, it reminded me of my overall discomfort in life—the day in and day out joys and frustrations of running a business and being uncertain what the next month is really going to look like.

But really, I need to remember to take a cue from the spider on a day to day basis. Be grateful and worship, cause my life is still standing in and out of stormy weather—and that’s not something I’m really in control of.