It is easy to forget. We forget our blessings quickly, but we hold onto our struggles for a long time.
This pattern has a name: spiritual amnesia. And if left untreated, it can quietly drain the life out of our
faith.
Here are four things worth remembering, things that serve as a real treatment for spiritual amnesia.
What Is Spiritual Amnesia and Why Does It Matter?
Have you ever noticed that God could bring you into a breakthrough yesterday, but by today you
already have a new prayer request? The things we are still waiting for God to do feel urgent and
immediate. But the things He has already done? We move past them quickly.
The psalmist knew this tendency well. He wrote, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His
benefits." - Psalm 103:2 English Standard Version (ESV). There is a reason he had to remind himself.
Forgetting the benefits of God leads to forgetting the goodness of God. And when we forget His
goodness, we stop extending it to others. We stop spreading the gospel. We become inactive.
The enemy is perfectly happy when we are forgetful. A discouraged believer is an inactive believer.
And an inactive believer means the kingdom of God is not advancing. That is exactly what the forces
of darkness want.
Remember the Change: How God Transformed Your Life
The first and most foundational thing to hold onto is this: God changed your life.
Whether you came to faith in an instant or through a long journey, every follower of Jesus has a story.
A moment or a season where salvation became real and personal. That story matters more than we
often give it credit for.
As 1 Peter 2:10 says, "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not
received mercy, but now you have received mercy." - 1 Peter 2:10 English Standard Version (ESV).
We could not earn it. We did not deserve it. Nobody has ever given us a greater gift than the gift of
salvation freely given by God. That is worth remembering. That is worth returning to regularly.
Take a moment and cast your mind back to when you first met God, or when your faith became truly
your own. That moment is not just history. It is the foundation of everything.
Remember the Care: God Meets You in the Valley
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Life has hills and valleys. Mountaintops and deep, difficult seasons. Breakthroughs and breakdowns.
This is simply the reality of walking through this world.
In Psalm 73, the writer Asaph spends sixteen verses wrestling with discouragement. He has tried to
live with a pure heart, but the wicked around him seem to be thriving. It feels unfair. It feels pointless.
But then something shifts. He enters the sanctuary of God, and things begin to make sense again.
He arrives at this powerful declaration: "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my
heart and my portion forever." - Psalm 73:26 English Standard Version (ESV).
Two of the most powerful words in all of Scripture appear again and again: but God.
We worship a God who does not stand on the mountaintop looking down at us in the valley, telling us
to climb faster. He comes down into the valley with us. As the psalmist wrote, "Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me." - Psalm 23:4 English
Standard Version (ESV).
The greatest deliverance we can receive is not always a change in circumstances. Sometimes the
greatest deliverance is simply Jesus Himself. His presence with us. His presence in us. We never
have to face a single moment alone.
We will not always see His hand at work in a direct way. But we will always have access to His face.
As Paul wrote, "We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into
the same image from one degree of glory to another." - 2 Corinthians 3:18 English Standard Version
(ESV).
He does not just let us see Him. He makes us like Him. That is the care of God on display.
Remember the Choice: Whose Ways Will You Follow?
Paul writes in Romans 12:1-2, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present
your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not
be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may
discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." - Romans 12:1-2 English
Standard Version (ESV).
The question this raises is simple but searching: how should we live in light of who God is?
If you want God, you also have to want His ways. You do not get to have God and leave behind how
God moves and what God requires. That is not how it works.
Jesus spoke directly to this when He addressed lukewarmness. You cannot have one foot in the
kingdom and one foot in the world. A choice must be made. The ways of the world versus the ways of
the kingdom. The rewards the world offers versus the rewards of eternity.
Some honest questions worth sitting with:
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• Is Jesus Lord of your life, or just Lord of your prayer list?
• Are you willing to let God commission and send you, or do you only want Him to arrange life in a
way that serves you?
• Are you willing to make sacrifices, or are you asking God to bless your comfort?
• Do you have room not just for God to give you the desires of your heart, but to reorder those
desires entirely?
The work of the kingdom is costly. Jesus Himself paid a cost to do what He came to do. If He could
not walk through this life without paying a price, we should not expect to either.
The good news is this: if you have already chosen to follow Jesus, you have already made this choice.
You made Him Lord on the day you gave your life to Him. The call now is to live like it.
Remember the Call: You Are Not Just Saved, You Are Sent
Proverbs 29:18 in the King James Version says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Without
a clear vision for what our calling looks like, we drift. We settle. We shrink.
Following Jesus is so much bigger than attending church on Sunday, reading a verse in the morning,
and praying when things go wrong. We are called to a whole life, holistic, full-circle faith that touches
every area of how we live.
A simple question to test whether you are walking in the fullness of your calling: does your calling
make you comfortable, or does it cost you something? If it currently makes you comfortable, there is
more. God has more for you.
We are called to create culture, not just consume it. We are called to be set apart, distinct,
consecrated. We are called to be hope to a weary world, not just another distraction. We are called to
usher in the kingdom here on earth, not simply to survive until heaven arrives.
As David declared in 2 Samuel 24:24, "I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me
nothing." - 2 Samuel 24:24 English Standard Version (ESV). The question is worth asking: is what you
are doing for God actually costing you anything?
We Need Each Other to Fight Spiritual Amnesia
Spiritual amnesia is not just a personal struggle. It is a community issue. The Israelites in the
wilderness began to look back at Egypt with longing, forgetting the chains they had just escaped.
Spiritual amnesia can make your old chains feel like freedom.
We need to hold each other accountable. Real community means going beyond surface-level
greetings and asking the deeper questions. How is your faith? How is your walk with God? What has
He done for you recently that you are in danger of forgetting?
We perish in isolation. We flourish in community. The Barnabas Spirit, the Spirit of genuine
encouragement and accountability, is what keeps spiritual amnesia from taking hold.
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Life Application
This week, take intentional time to remember. Sit down and write out your testimony, even just a few
sentences about how God changed your life. Then write down three specific ways He has cared for
you in the last year, even in the hard seasons. Share at least one of those things with another believer
this week.
The treatment for spiritual amnesia is not complicated. It is remembrance, practiced on purpose, out
loud, and in community.
Questions to ask yourself:
• When did I last genuinely reflect on how God changed my life, and have I thanked Him for it
recently?
• Am I currently more aware of what God has not yet done than what He has already done?
• Is Jesus truly Lord of my life, or have I reduced Him to Lord of my prayer list?
• Does my calling cost me something, or have I settled into a version of faith that is comfortable?
• Who in my community can I be honest with about my spiritual walk this week?
God changed your life. God cares for you. God has given you a choice. And God has called you by
name. Hold onto these four things, and let them be the ongoing treatment for spiritual amnesia in
your life.
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