It still baffles me what may have been forgotten between Eve arising out of Adam’s rib, and her conversation with a serpent. The journey between Gen 2 and Gen 3 strikes me deep. What may Eve have forgotten about the glorious process of being made by somebody out of somebody who was made out of dust? 

Yet I empathize, faced with a same kind of edenic low-hanging fruit, we all forget the one who placed us in the Garden, don’t we? 

Eve’s descendants seem to have kept up the memory loss. “The man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam 13:14), well, forgot his own heart and settled for a bathroom gaze. (2 Samuel 11) His son, Solomon’s wisdom and wealth caused a secular Ethiopian queen to “lose her breath,” (I Kings 10:4) yet the same wisdom couldn’t help him stay married to one woman, let alone resist 700 wives and 200 concubines.  

This list could grow, but one thing is clear, five seconds into temptation, God’s people are more forgetful of who they are, their privilege in Christ, and the vast testimony or legacy their life may hold. 

The husband at the upcountry restaurant, clad in his wedding ring, not only forgets his vows before an eternal God, but also recalls zero applause from the friends and family that accompanied the occasion of wearing it. 

The single Christian girl, weary of waiting for Mr. Right, succumbs to the constant Whatsapp texts, picks up the call and knocks on a stranger’s door, unaware of a dozen younger girls at her church who previously admired her resilience in the face of one-night stands. The young man scrolling Tik Tok auto replays, forgets there are more soul-elevating joys beyond Pixels and Reels. 

At the heart of all temptation and sin is radical memory loss, forgetting what God has said about himself, who we are, and what we are becoming, in him. 

Chances are this kind of spiritual amnesia happens in a split-second, yet the testimony it destroys has been built over years, and the consequences it leaves, to eternity. 

Every believer’s hope is, since we do not have a high priest unfamiliar with our weaknesses. Since we have a high priest who when tempted, never forgot the glorious things and often spoke back, “it is written.” (Mathew 4:4) Since we have such a familiar advocate, we can pray for strength to be spared in the moment of this utter memory loss. That’s how weaklings like us are spared.

Those dark moments, when we are eager to exchange everything we have known about an immortal God, for the vanity of mortal things. That moment where God’s glory, our Christian testimony and legacy, grow dim in the face of the world, the flesh, and the devil. 

Oh that God will preserve us in that dread hour for his name’s sake! That our blindness to higher joys will be healed in the evening of conformity. That we shall awaken to the grief of giving in. That our Christian testimony and legacy shall not be swallowed up in forgetfulness!

When you are tempted, you will forget glorious things. Knowing this is one step towards understanding that indeed “..he who started a good work in you will carry it to the end.” (Phil 1:6)