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Do You Need Reminding?

Daily Reflection / Produced by The High Calling
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Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it.

1 Corinthians 15:

Some kinds of reminders drive me crazy. For example, I don't appreciate being reminded for the umpteenth time that my subscription is about to run out . . . to a magazine I've decided to stop receiving.

But some reminders are just fine with me. I'm glad to get the email from my dentist reminding me that my appointment is coming up. And I don't mind being reminded of important things, like an upcoming election or my wife's birthday . . . or the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul sensed a need to remind the Corinthians in writing of the Good News he had once preached to them in person. It's not that they needed to be saved all over again. They received the gift of salvation when they believed the Good News for the first time. Rather, the believers in Corinth were in need of the refreshment of thinking and living that comes from a persistent awareness of God's saving work through Jesus Christ.

I would suggest that you and I also need to be reminded of the Good News. We find it all too easy to turn the Christian life into a list of dos and don'ts, rather than a joyful response to God's grace. We can even doubt God's love for us when we let the Good News slip from consciousness. Thus, like the Corinthians, we need reminding of one of the most important things of all: God's love for us in Jesus Christ.

Such a reminder comes in different ways. We may remember the Good News in the context of a worship service, through preaching or the Lord's Supper. Or this might happen as we reflect up the Scripture. Or we might be reminded of the Gospel by the word of a friend or a line from a hymn. May your mind and heart be open to reminders of God's grace today.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: What helps you to remember the Good News of God's love in Christ? How does remembering the Gospel make a difference in your thinking? your emotions? your actions?

PRAYER: Gracious God, how I thank you for the Good News of your love in Christ. Thank you for reaching out to save me when I was lost. Thank you for bearing my sin through Christ, so that I might live in relationship with you forever and join in your work of transforming the world.

Thank you, Lord, for all the ways you remind me of the Good News . . . for biblical preaching, for the spiritual power of Communion, for truths gleaned from your Word, for the encouragement of friends, for inspired lyrics, and for your grace at work in me each day.

Help me to attend to these and other reminders of the Good News. And may I be a source of remembrance for others, through my words and deeds.

I pray in the name of Jesus, the center of the Good News. Amen.
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