STOP FOLLOWING ME!
There was a time when people complained about not being recognized. You know, you went into a store for the 25th time and they still didn’t know you or remember that you always came in for that one brand of pantyhose you love and you always buy 10 pairs of exactly the same size/color/style every time. Then there were those mass emails or letters just sent to “Dear Sir/Madam” or “Current Resident” advertising something you’d never use like a John Deer tractor when you live in an apartment in New York City or a free pregnancy test for a 105 year old man.
Well, I’m beginning to long for those days. Now I’m feeling like businesses have gone too far in the other direction.
Just last week I was looking for an elliptical machine at Sears.com. Our treadmill was on its last leg and we were considering replacing it with an elliptical. So, I wanted to research and compare before making a decision. Now, every website I go to that allows ads I find advertisements for elliptical machines from Sears. EVERY. SINGLE. SITE.
So, dear Sears, stop following me! If I want the elliptical, I’ll get it. Right now, I’m hoping I can find it somewhere else – just so I can show you that your stalking is more annoying than helpful. But I know it’s all automated and if I don’t buy from them, they won’t know where I went to buy it or that their stalking didn’t work.
Could be worse, though. I’ve been known to research new under garments…
As annoying as being stalked by my past behavior online can be, what about the feeling that I am being stalked by my past mistakes and sins - that the results of my mistakes (busted relationships, broken trust, guilt, self-doubt, etc.) are chained to my present and weighing down my future?
Well, that is a feeling I should give up. We know that God separates our sins from as “as far as East is from the West.” Psalm 103:12. He also tells us that he will completely forget our sins, iniquities and unrighteousness. Hebrews 8:12 [KJV] 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. See also Hebrews 10:17 and Jeremiah 31:34.
So, my sins and faults and past mistakes are not currently rambling around in God’s mind, waiting for the opportunity for Him to bring them up to me and rub my nose in it again. Nope. That is a work I do all by myself, if I’m not careful. Well, Satan likes to help with that, I’m sure.
What does God remember? He remembers me in particular, better than a mother remembers her nursing child according to Isaiah 49:14. And that is because I am written “upon the palms of” His hands (v. 15).
Have you ever written something in the palm of your hand to remember it? Me too. But God has you and me engraved on his hand. The Hebrew word can mean “to cut in.” I think of it more like a tattoo. It’s in there “real good.”
But what exactly about me does God remember? What follows me around in His view of my life and what is written about me on that palm? According to Hebrews 6:10, everything good I have ever done: Heb. 6:10 [KJV] For God [is] not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
So, I guess that means that you and I follow God around where ever He goes. It’s probably a good idea to stalk Him by prayer and Bible study to see what He is up to and where He is going with us. I guess I could learn a thing or two from Sears.
I’d love to hear your thoughts too. Write me at:
Nancy@DynamicChristianMinistries.org.
Next time: CAN YOU BE TOO RICH, TOO THIN OR TOO TAN?
About the N.E.W. Church Lady – She is just an average middle aged woman who has been a believer and church attender all her life. She is married with three grown children. She lives in a small town and works in sales. Her hobbies are fitness, reading, cooking, writing and travel.