Do you? When the focus of your remembering is who the Lord is and what He’s done in your life… your faith is increased. Have you ever considered that in the act of remembering you are building up your faith? Before you take credit for the ‘good’ that came out of the situation… think again. Remember those times when there really didn’t seem to be any positive way out of or to resolve the situation and then… lo and behold, there was? Had you brought the situation to the Lord seeking His involvement? Regardless, if you are His, it was His hand that brought the final ‘good report’ – whether that was health, a financial need, relationships, etc. It is always His hand that gives us our good report.
“I will [solemnly] remember the deeds of the Lord; Yes,
I will [wholeheartedly] remember Your wonders of old.
I will meditate on all Your works
And thoughtfully consider all Your [great and wondrous] deeds.”
(Psalm 77:11-12, AMP)“I will give thanks and praise the Lord, with all my heart;
I will tell aloud all Your wonders and marvelous deeds.” (Psalm 9:1, AMP)
A great many ‘I will’. I think the point in the Psalm verses are to remind us that we are involved in our remembering. Because though the Lord is with us, though He leads us, though He provides ways… we have to also follow. And I have never believed that ‘follow’ was a passive and mindless word. Following is intentional – we chose to follow and if our minds and hearts aren’t involved, we’ll not see the results and learn.
A related behavior to remembering is pondering. Another word is ‘meditate’. So remembering includes pondering and meditating. There are many (77) verses that talk about remembering:
“…remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”
( Ephesians 2:12, ESV)
Remembering is not a negative word and only used to show us where and when we erred. It’s also an encouragement of when we did know what to do and acted on that and the results were based on this. Actually, remembering is a kind of ‘neutral’ word. It’s in the learning, growth, maturing that results from our remembering that defines the effects. Don’t dismiss or ignore your memories. Let them be a guide – both the good and the bad.
Don’t dismiss remembering too quickly. We have learned that if we don’t remember the lessons of history then we are bound to repeat them. Whether the learning was painful or painless, it is always profitable because we can always learn. Some focus too much on the lessons from good memories and some only on the negative learnings in bad situation. We need both because both provide foundations on which we build. I speak often about living in the now. But remembering isn’t in conflict. Always use what you’ve learned, think/plan for/about tomorrow, and do it all in your now.
