2 Peter 1:12

2 Peter 1:12

Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.

One of the greatest mistakes we can make as Christians is to fail to remember. It is natural for humans to want to ignore or shrug of reminders. Part of justifying our sin is to know what God has to say but to simply push it to the back of our minds. We are in a dangerous state when we find ourselves saying, “I know, I know.” I will be perfectly honest by telling You that this is a huge area for me at times. God has really worked on my heart, He has humbled me, it took pain and confusion to get here because I did not heed reminders. So, let me take up the charge and pass it on to you. Peter acknowledges what his readers know but he knows that we simply put what we know on hold for what we feel. We live in an impulse driven society. A is over and he is going through your music and suddenly he gives you a weird look, “What?” you ask. Then he simply shows you a CD you bought and all you can tell him is, “impulse buy.” Impulse buys are never good buys and we know this but we still make them! We are driven by our emotions but it is our knowledge of God that keeps us on track. The mistake we make as Christians is that we forget what lese we are supposed to view God through. We stop viewing Him based on His word and we start looking at Him through our emotions. The God of our emotions is very, very skewed.

Another reason we do not like reminders is because of our human pride. “I know, I know” is such a prideful statement. James tells us in chapter 1:19, “This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear. Slow to speak and slow to anger.” It is a humbling experience when You have to be reminded of the things you already know. What does James exhort us to do? We must put aside our pride and listen! If you find yourself quick to speak you are struggling with pride. We must be humble and this ties directly into what the Christian life should be! Our lives as Christians should be outwardly focused. Do we value our friend’s advice who are praying for us daily? Are we praying for our friend’s? It is our job as fellow Christians to point each other towards Christ. We all have blind spots in our lives, some intentional, some we are completely unaware that they exist.

Now that we have discussed the idea of receiving reminders we must be quick to look at the other side. When we are the ones giving the reminder how do we approach the situation? If a reminder must be accepted in all humility I think it must be given in greater humility! So how can we point out the speak in our brother’s eye when we know there is a plank in ours? We must examine our motives. Motives are such a messy area of life because we are ultimately selfish people. I know we all have had moments where we think we are acting selflessly but when it boils down we realize that even our selfless behavior is selfishly motivated! We humans are funny creatures. But this is the reminder I must offer you go back and reread verse four. We are selfish in our human nature but we posses the divine nature! God is able to purify our motives. I have found that my prayer life has been greatly improved by praying for other people. My motives in those prayers are pure and objective because I am not involved. It is when I pray for myself that I have trouble discerning my motives. So when you feel you must remind someone of what they already know get someone outside the situation to pray for both of you. You do not have to tell them what is going on just seek their prayer. We are to live in community and to consider others better than ourselves.

Next time you catch yourself saying, “I know, I know” stop immediately and seek forgiveness from God for your pride! Pray with the person who is reminding you for a humble spirit and be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger.