What is your favorite/most important possession?
For me, it is probably my passport. I get travel withdrawals if I'm in the country too long (half joking). This passport allows me to do what I love to do: travel. When my social club went on a mission trip last year to Costa Rica, I overly stressed the importance of keeping the passports on our bodies, secured and under our clothing. If I didn't feel it on me, my heart would flutter, and I would panic. It is so, so special to me.
Now, imagine losing this thing that you value the most. Whatever the item is, your phone, a book, your wallet, imagine forgetting it in an airport or in a taxi, maybe in a friend's car. Panic, right?
I'm more likely to leave my wallet or phone than my passport. I always check that it is with me, because it holds so much in it and has serious monetary value. We remember things that matter. Me, my passport. You, your upcoming test worth 50% of your grade. Some teens, their phones. A woman, her jewelry. A bride, her gown. Important things are hard to forget. So, how can we forget God?
"Can a virgin forget her ornaments,
Or a bride her attire?
Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number." (Jeremiah 2:32)
It is so easy, when life gets busy, to put God on hold while we handle the more "immediate" issues. The assignments on Canvas, the club/extracurricular events stacking up, the laundry overflowing.
These physical things are demanding our attention now. They send notifications; they require constant monitoring; they even rule our daily schedules. But God doesn't demand. He waits patiently. He watches us make choices and waits for us to remember Him. He pleads with us, but there is no force; He gives us the choice to prioritize Him or not.
Wouldn't it be nice if we missed God as much as our most cherished possession? If we reached for Him as quickly as we reach for our belongings to make sure they are still with us? What if we felt the same comfort and relief each time we felt His presence as with our favorite thing?
We pursue our priorities.
So, the question is not "how we can stop forgetting God in hectic times? (which may be all the time)", but rather "have we prioritized God more than anything else so that we will pursue Him wholeheartedly (even in hectic times) and will panic when we feel far from Him?". Jesus should be my everything. If I think Jesus is everything, I will notice where I am when I've gotten far from the Lord - in a much quicker reaction time than when I see that my phone is missing. I will make a plan of spiritual growth for the here and now and stick to it, so that I do not ever lose sight of Him.
There are many different ways this could look: an hour of personal prayer and study each morning, making time to go to devotionals and other church events instead of skipping to take a nap or do homework, etc. But, we must make a plan to keep Him near, no matter the business that surrounds us and regardless of the earthly demands that the world throws at us.
One thing is for certain: we will never regret pursuing Jesus, because He has already pursued us to the ends of the earth and the depths of the sea.
"God looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God." (Psalm 53:2)
"for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10)
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:44
Let us make our faith our most precious thing, and let us pursue Him with an ever more intense adoration. This very thing, prioritizing and passionately pursuing God, will be our escape from the most hectic times and our Help when we are being pulled by the world.
I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. (2 Peter 1:13-15)
Seek the Lord while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the Lord,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. (Isaiah 55:6-8)