Forgetting seems to be a universal problem that can have minor or serious consequences. Why do we forget? Elizabeth Loftus, a memory researcher, has identified four main reasons why people forget: retrieval failure, interference, failure to store, and motivated forgetting.

This first one, retrieval failure is to do with the pathways that get created when a new memory is formed. If the information is not recalled using these pathways (memory traces) then over time they begin to fade and disappear. Eventually, the memory can be lost. Interference occurs when new memories compete with old ones and vice versa. When information is similar, there’s a battle for which version is correct and we can forget either the new or old information. Failure to store is pretty much what it says – the information never makes it to long term memory in the first place. It’s not ‘logged’ and coded properly. The effort to preserve the information isn’t made and so that information is forgotten. Finally, motivated forgetting is through either suppression or repression when there’s a memory, or traumatic experience that the individual doesn’t want to remember be that consciously or unconsciously.

I was struck reading the Gideon story that after all the people went through under his leadership, as soon as he died, the Israelites prostituted themselves, adopted idols and false gods. “They forgot the Lord their God, who had rescued them from all their enemies surrounding them.” (Judges 8:34) After all they’d been through, after all God had done for them. They simply forgot.

I believe this is a danger we also experience all too frequently. God is constantly and consistently sustaining us, loving us, speaking to us and being with us. And yet we forget. We forget his previous provision, we forget his limitless love, we forget his enduring grace. We forget. Is it because we have failed to store the information of who He is? Have we allowed interference to drown out the truth? Have we left it so long since reminding ourselves of His goodness and promises that the memory traces are fading and getting lost? Overlearning and rehearsing information can minimise the effects of forgetting… don’t leave it too long before spending time in the word and in prayer.

“Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits…” (Psalm 103:2 NIV) Let me encourage you to read the rest of Psalm 103 this week and take some time to meditate, to create memory traces and pathways that you can recall. Forget not his benefits – he forgives, he redeems, he crowns you with love and compassion, he satisfies, he works justice and righteousness, he is compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love. Like the Israelites, we might forget, but verse 13 in Psalm 103 shows that God never forgets us. “He remembers…” He remembers you. Don’t forget that.