The Spiritual Habit of Remembering (Daily Refresh, 9-20-26)
Throughout the Old Testament, God delivers the people of Israel from many different situations. He acts miraculously in bringing them out of foreign nations. He even provides water and bread for them in the wilderness.
However, the nation of Israel grew disobedient and distant from God and His law. They ended up turning away from God, and part of the reason was because they failed to remember.
They failed to remember the great acts of deliverance God did for them. They failed to remember the miracles that He performed in their midst. They failed to remember that He was good and present and loving towards them.
But thankfully, there were also people throughout Scripture who developed a spiritual habit of remembering God’s work from the past. When times became difficult, or when things seemed dark, they took the time to remember how God had previously acted toward them.
The writer of Psalm 9 was one of them. The Psalmist begins this song by doing two things. First, the writer gives thanks to God, and expresses gratefulness for God.
Second, the writer recounts God’s wonderful deeds. Recounting these deeds from the past helped the Israelites remember His faithfulness and goodness toward them even in difficult times.
And the same is true for us.
We are commanded many times in God’s Word to remember what God has done, because remembering what God has done fuels our hope for what He will do.
So take some time today to remember what God has done for you. Think about a season of your life where you knew God’s goodness and love. Tell Him how grateful you are for His goodness and love in your life. Begin to let those memories of God’s love shape your hope for the future.
My Thoughts
In remembering what God has already done, I find hope for the future. When things look the darkest, the light of remembering God’s actions on my behalf in the past makes the darkness dissipate.
In 2015 when I had a stroke, I had a really hard time remembering. I would read a few pages in a book and not remember anything I had read. I would go to the kitchen, struggling to get there with my quad cane and uneven gait, and then forget why I was there. I do recall that when the kids would ask me if I remembered something, my general response would be that I didn’t remember because I had had a stroke. My reality was altered but the presence of God in my life was not.
So after that I made it a point to remember at the end of each day all the small things, big things, everything I could, that God had done for me that day. I enumerated them as I was falling asleep. That is a good habit to follow and I still try to do that every night. I also tell others what God has done, to help their faith to grow.
My stroke was a massive brain bleed, a 19 our of 21 on the stroke scale and my neurologist is always happy to see that I am still around and still moving, thinking and even reading with comprehension now. One of my therapists told me that we are so well made by God that when one part of the brain stops functioning, the brain re-routes those activities to another part. She encouraged me by telling me that “it just takes time” to detour to the new path. I had forgotten how to speak Spanish (and I was a Spanish teacher) but it came back to me slowly as I studied first and second year textbooks. I had forgotten how to walk, but my physical therapist helped me to retrain my brain to take steps. And on and on it went. Today, I can pretty much do all that I did before, just more slowly. And how is that possible? Because God showed up and began the process of healing me. In the ambulance when I could not speak, I was praying for God to be with me and with Harry and our children. I
Remembering what God has done is a good thing for me and I am confident that it will help you in your journey with Him. Journaling helps. Writing answers to prayers in your Bible helps. Whatever it takes, make remembering part of your daily routine so that you don’t forget and you can also help others remember God’s goodness too.
