July 18 - 1 Corinthians 10: Remember Our Story

Over dinner with friends, I was sharing pictures from the conference where we served.   The photos are of people who are sacrificially serving Christ and living out His gospel all over the world.  As my friends looked at the pictures, they saw smiling faces, children acting goofy, and the beautiful background.  However, as I remembered and related the stories of these people, the photos took on much deeper and larger meanings.

Paul was asking the Corinthians to do a similar thing, to remember where they'd come from, their stories, their baggage, and their God.  To remember, not for the sake of reminiscing, but for the purpose of putting their stories in the right place within God's larger story.

Remember our history, friends, and be warned...

The same thing could happen to us. We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did.... We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him...

These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don't repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don't be so naive and self-confident. You're not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it's useless. Cultivate God-confidence. (10:1, 6-10, 11-12)

God is speaking the same words to me - to not be naive and forget my messes, my temptations, and my failures.  Nor should I be self-confident and focus on my successes or right choices.  He's asking me to remember the story He's given me - with all its pain and joy - to cultivate a confidence in Him that He alone can transform my life.