“Because that, when they knew God they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts …”
- Romans 1:21-24, KJV
As I drove home from work yesterday, listening to a sermon CD based on these verses and dealing specifically with the power of the imagination (as depicted in bold above), I was struck by one comment made by the preacher: It would do us all some good to spend more time remembering. He talked about remembering all that God had done for us in the past, about remembering how faithful God had been to us, about reciting to ourselves all the times we’d seen God intervene on our behalf, about constructing monuments in our heart like the monuments in the Old Testament that would always remind us of how much God loves us and has done for us … Remembering this way enables us to glorify God and His faithfulness, to be thankful, to utilize the creative imagination God gave us to conjure up images in our hearts that will be conducive to building our faith, and lighten our hearts with joy – exactly the opposite of what happened in the verses above. Remembering this way, thus, has a protective influence on our hearts, keeps them sensitive to the working of God in our lives, and keeps our focus on glorifying Him for all His faithfulness. It also helps us keep an answer ready should anyone ask us why we have the peace that we do, the joy that we do, why we believe God has any interest in our lives at all – because we’ve been reciting the answer to those questions to ourselves for weeks … 1 Chronicles 16:10-12 in the Contemporary English Version shows us how this works; these verses are the antithesis of the Romans verses above, commanding us to live our lives in gratitude, worship, and a constant state of remembrance. They say, “Celebrate and worship His holy name with all your heart. Trust the Lord and his mighty power. Worship him always. Remember his miracles and all his wonders and his fair decisions.”
Perhaps because I have so many tender memories of growing up, perhaps because I know the stories of faith passed down for generations – but this thought of remembrance as a kind of worship experience really blessed my heart. So this morning I began a study on other verses about remembering and discovered something amazing – the Bible is FULL of verses telling us to remember various things! I’ve picked out only a few to write about today, but it is my hope that you too will be blessed with the desire to study this out and will begin remembering for yourself … So, what does the Bible tell us to remember, you ask? It begins with people whose faith has indelibly left an imprint on our own …
Remember … People of Faith
Hebrews 11:2, in the New Century Version, states, “Faith is the reason we remember great people who lived in the past,” closely followed up by Hebrews 13:7, which says, “ Don’t forget about your leaders who taught you God’s message. Remember what kind of lives they lived and try to have faith like theirs.” I love these verses. They make my heart soft and tender, fill my mind with images of loved ones gone on to be with the Lord in glory, of loved ones here on earth I don’t get to see as often as I would like, and make it plain to me why God always chose to be known as the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Such a title invited others to remember with tender and receptive hearts the men of faith who had gone before. For me, such encouragement to remember the great people of faith in my past brings to remembrance my Great-Great-Great Grandfather Michael Sallander who fought valiantly in the Civil War and who was described in his obituary as being a great German man of faith; his daughter Mayme Marks, who always told my mother when she was a little girl, “Make sure you memorize Scripture, for there will come a day when you may not be able to read it yourself,” who had books of the Scriptures memorized that she would repeat to herself in her blind old age. It reminds me of long lovely afternoons with my Great-Grandma Hayden, Mayme’s daughter, reminds me of those days doing word searches and talking about all the mysteries of faith – about the Second Coming of Christ, about how much God loves us, about the way He is working in our lives and the stories she would tell me of meeting her husband. He skipped a fishing trip with his buddies to make sure his sisters made it to Sunday School safely, and she just “knew” – great, tender faith like that was a rare and precious find. It reminds me of the year at Bible School that my Grandma Berg participated, acting the part of Peter following Jesus – and all the wonder of seeing her creative heart in the role – of my Grandpa Berg refusing to miss Bible Study and church even when the Parkinson’s made it so difficult. Likewise, I remember the first trip with my husband’s grandparents, and overhearing his conversation with a perfect stranger outside of our hotel, talking to them about Jesus … Their faith is what makes them so special to me, what makes the memories live on so tenderly in my heart. After such a faith as this is my life to be modeled, to be formed and fashioned and filled with iron-clad faith.
Perhaps your family doesn’t cherish and pass down similar legacies of faith; perhaps the legacy of faith in your family starts with you. You still have people to look to in the faith, people like Gladys Aylward and George Muller and Smith Wigglesworth – look up their stories, read them, cherish them, and thank God for them. Allow them to form your great cloud of witnesses cheering you on in the faith (Hebrews 12:1).
But most importantly, 1 Corinthians 11:24, in the CEV, tells us that, “After he had given thanks, he broke [the bread] and said, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Eat this and remember me.’” Remember Him. Remember Him as though He were your loved one passed on – remember the laughter of His funny sayings, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle …” Remember his tenderness and love for children. Remember him falling asleep in the middle of a storm, like the way Grandpa falls asleep in all the rucous after family Thanksgiving … Remember the wisdom, the love, the sacrifices He made for you. HE is the one it is most important to remember. Remember Him passionately, everyday … Allow your memories of Him to guide your steps and lead you into an ever-better relationship with Him.
Remember … Humble Beginnings
Lest we swell in pride, the Word also warns us to remember where God brought us from, and to glorify Him for bringing us places we couldn’t have brought ourselves. 1 Corinthians 1:26 says, “My dear friends, remember what you were when God chose you. The people of this world didn’t think that many of you were wise. Only a few of you were in places of power, and not many of you came from important families …” Hear that? God tells us to remember how lowly our beginnings were, to remember how horrible our lives were without Him in it … to remember our shamefulness – and to glorify Him for loving us anyway, for delivering us out of that mess, for having better plans for us than we ever could have imagined at that point, to thank Him with tears and humility … And also, in Luke 17:32, to “remember what happened to Lot’s wife,” when she turned to go back to that life. Don’t be tempted to return to the sin of your past, to the behaviors that kept you so far from God … Turning our back on His best for us is the highest insult, and will not be tolerated.
Remember … God’s Miraculous Power and Presence in Your Life
As if this weren’t enough “remembering” to elicit our worship and adoration for the God of mercy we serve, the Word also tells us to remember His miracles. Psalm 143:5 says, “I remember to think about the many things you did in years gone by.” Psalm 77:11-12 say, “Our Lord, I will remember the things you have done, your miracles of long ago. I will think about each one of your mighty deeds.” What miracles have you seen God do in your life? How have you seen Him come through for you? As I read and think over my lifetime, I am so humbled by God’s grace to me. I think of the time in my life when I finally accepted Him, and the suicidal and lonesome child disappeared into the new creation He had designed for me. What a miracle that was! Or the six months right after my cousin died, and I had been praying foolishly for one more chance to hug him, to say good-bye, and God brought us to a Christian play starring someone who looked just like him, someone who hugged me so tightly and told me that God was with me. He answered my childlike prayer. Or when God answered years of prayers for Christian friends by giving me the favor to win a Voice of Democracy competition, to fly out to Washington DC to meet the most amazing young men and women of faith I had ever encountered and who still minister such hope to my life. I think of the young man of God, to whom I’m now married, that God introduced to my life, of the time He rescued us from the tornado headed straight towards us with the words of Psalm 91, of the time earlier this year when the car began fishtailing in the snow and the person behind had been tailgating and when I yelled “Lord, help!” and the car straightened out, and I was able to arrive home safely … And there are so many more instances of when God has answered my prayers, when He’s loved me through, when He’s provided small miracles for me so many times … and my heart is so humbled …
Remember … His Return
Finally, Revelations 22:7, CEV tells us to, “Remember, I am coming soon! God will bless everyone who pays attention to the message of this book.” We are to live in constant remembrance that our God is returning for us soon, that His glory will soon break open across the sky … and to worship and watch in light of that promise.
Perhaps this hasn’t ministered as much to you as it has to me. Perhaps your heart wasn’t as stirred to worship God like mine has been in this study. Perhaps you feel like you have nothing to praise God for or to remember with joy and gladness. If that’s you, and even if it isn’t, I’d like to leave you with verses from Lamentations 3, starting in verse 17 and ending in verse 24, in the Contemporary English Version:
I cannot find peace or remember happiness. I tell myself, ‘I am finished! I can’t count on the Lord to do anything for me.” (That’s emotion speaking – not faith) Just thinking of my troubles and my lonely wandering makes me miserable. That’s all I ever think about, and I am depressed. Then I remember something that fills me with hope. The Lord’s kindness never fails! If he had not been merciful, we would have been destroyed. The Lord can always be trusted to show mercy each morning. Deep in my heart I say, ‘The Lord is all I need; I can depend on him!”
May you never forget how truly God loves you, my friends.
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