And Remember the Whole Way

The goal of development and the main achievement of our family is Heaven. We do everything possible to get there and be full citizens there, knowing and keeping the Heavenly laws. Our path in this direction is very fascinating and blessed, and we have to constantly ask for something great and inaccessible in order to take the next step and rise higher.

When my wife and I just became friends and weren't planning to create anything, even then the Lord began to bless our relationship with interesting revelations about love and friendship, and the Agape School of Love opened to us an amazing world of new possibilities in relationships with people. We began to practice the laws of agape, happiness, and friendship on each other, and never ceased to be amazed at how they work and how beautifully they combine with our everyday life and business life. In the light of the science of love, our life was transformed, and biblical narratives came alive and became very tasty and practical. The God of love turned out to be much more beautiful than we had previously imagined Him.

All our successes and failures, experiences and joys painted with the colors of past battles the perspectives of future victories. We gathered into our hearts all our lived experiences and constantly sought new knowledge and adventures for spiritual growth.

Although our life was full of constant trials, still the happiness that we decided to build with our own hands confidently erected its strong walls around our family, making our home a quiet harbor where one could rest, rejoice in life, share love with each other, and constantly thank God for such mercy and such a wonderful gift that we always had in our home, which we were for each other.

We persistently went toward our happiness and greatly valued all our achievements in this matter. Our home truly became a piece of Heaven, and all who visited us or communicated with us also rejoiced, wondering why we were like this and where our secret was hidden. We pointed everyone to Jesus as the Foundation of our joy and thanked God for everything.

Once, while reading the Bible, we noticed the commandment described in Deuteronomy 8:2: "And you shall remember the whole way which the Lord your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not." And then followed a listing of all God's blessings and warnings.

We decided to discuss this question because a clear impulse appeared to stop and understand how this concerns us.

Remembering the history of the Israeli people, we drew parallels to our family and understood that this God's commandment also relates to us. The world that surrounds us is not so safe and can at any moment swallow us, knock the oars from our hands, spin us in the whirlpool of its vanity, and throw us with the waterfalls of its temptations onto the stones of abundance and idleness.

We also noticed that our family happiness could become that comfort zone which, having created for ourselves, we wouldn't want to leave for more fruitful work in God's field and would fall into various temptations. A dilemma emerged. We fought with all our strength for our happiness and constantly asked for it from Heaven, and having achieved it, we risked becoming lukewarm and falling under the curse of Laodicea.

But having begun to remember our whole path by which the Lord led us, how He tested us and fed us with daily bread, we constantly convinced ourselves that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Remembering our past experiences, we rejoiced at how the Lord constantly cared for us, how He crushed enemies, how He made us thirst for Him and satisfied us to abundance with blessings.

We simply saw how He carries us in His arms and continues to do so while we give Him our cares. Isaiah 46:3-4.

Knowing the history of Israel's apostasy, we in no way wanted to go the same path and perish 30 centimeters from Eternity. They say that the most insurmountable wall is between the head and the heart, which many have erected for their destruction, flirting with this world and not paying attention to God's calls.

Remembering the experiences of past years and our path to God and with God, we rejoiced and thanked God's Providence. Even our meeting in this world and the decision to be friends also looked quite interesting, as part of God's grandiose plan about us.

It was useful to remember our falls and how the Lord lifted us up, and how we swiftly soared so as never to fall. We remembered how our sins were forgiven, and what joy we experienced under the influence of God's grace.

Summarizing the results of bygone battles, we saw how not we by our strength, but the Lord won victories and accomplished the great and inaccessible. And if we recount all the revelations from above that revealed the fullness and beauty of truth and led us to deeper relationships with Christ, then without the instructions of the Holy Spirit we would not have had all this in our life.

Remembering everything that happened to us, we wanted, like Paul, to say that we, not forgetting what lies behind, press forward to the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus.

We also understood that success and all our victories directly depended on our faith in God's Word and on obedience to His prophets. Even following everyday advice had special power and brought abundant blessings to our home.

The question of further living in our home appeared on the agenda. Although we lived in rented housing on the outskirts of the city, we clearly heard the call to leave large cities, and then small ones, and took to heart to follow this advice.

Analyzing our spiritual growth, we realized that city life binds us to this place, and with each year it will be harder for us to move from there, and someday it will become completely impossible. The life of many fellow believers was confirmation of this, and we didn't want to be like Lot and risk our family's salvation, believing that by taking this path of moving to rural areas, we would have something to compare with and something to remember.

Not having the possibility to quickly change something, we gave this care also to God, beginning to conduct searches and seek answers to our questions.

It was decided to take our family happiness with us, wherever the Lord might point us. And while no clear answer from above was heard, we continued our usual life in the occupied place.

Reflections and discussions about the traveled path helped us see what we achieved thanks to the power of God's grace. We understood where we should go, what we had managed to experience, and what we still had to face. The victories of the past opened to us the picture of God's participation in all our battles and how our will, uniting with Christ, gave decisive rebuff to the enemy's onslaught, opening to us the path to new victories. Knowing and seeing Who helps us to this place, we were not at all afraid to take a step into the unknown, because past experiences had tempered us and given complete confidence in God and in fulfilling that part where human efforts are also necessary.

It was interesting to analyze the development of our relationships in love and see how God's hand led us, testing and granting the strength to love. And our love for each other was with us.

1. Please read Deuteronomy 8:2-20; 9:7; 32:7; Exodus 13:3; 20:8-9; Ecclesiastes 12:1; Isaiah 46:3-4,9; John 15:20; Ephesians 2:11-14; Hebrews 10:32-39; Revelation 3:3 in light of this lesson.

2. What did you understand from this topic?

3. What other verses from the Bible came to your mind?

4. Why does the Lord call us to remember our whole path?

5. What should be forgotten, and what should be remembered? Philippians 3:13-14.

6. Does the experience of past years help you at the present time?

7. Are there things that the Lord forgets? Isaiah 43:25; Hebrews 8:12; 10:17.

8. Is it joyful for you to reflect on how the Lord leads you through life?

9. Can it be that the clouds of today's trials try to spoil your life and convince you that everything in it is bad?

10. Do memories of how the Lord has cared for you all your life instill faith in you?

11. Does Jesus fulfill His promise to be with you always? Matthew 28:19-20.

12. What should I do if I have just believed, and I have nothing yet to remember?

13. What does remembering victories and blessings produce in your heart?

14. Do you see God's hand and His guidance in your life?

15. Does gratitude to God and praise fill your heart when you remember your whole path?