Remember, and Experience a Miracle

“Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O may soul, and forget not all His benefits.” Psalm 103:1,2

Your memory is part of your soul. When filled with God’s promises it can help produce great faith to trust God. When filled with memories of God’s former blessings, it can bring great hope for the future. God, who is faithful, can and will provide again. Then, to talk about those memories can produce praise to God, faith in action for His coming deliverance.

“They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness and shall sing of your righteousness” (Psalm 145:7).

You Are Never Too Young to Begin To Use Your Memory

“Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them.” Ecclesiastes 12:1

Solomon spent many years in carnality, searching for satisfaction in life outside of God and His Word. He simply tells us in his old age, it is good to begin remembering God’s goodness and faithfulness from a young age. It will help you come through difficulties in older age.

It is inevitable that trouble will come. God guarantees it. Remembering God’s goodness of the past helps keep you on the right path tomorrow. It helps guarantee success in every problem and temptation of life.

Remembering the Cross

Some forms of remembrance bring us back to the beginning of all His benefits for us.  His work on the cross. The power of taking communion with fellow believers is not the elements themselves, but what they remind us of.  Remembering the cross and Jesus’ victory brings us back to where our Christian life really began.

“And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, staying, “This is My body which is given for you, do this in remembrance of me. Likewise, He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood which is shed for you” (Luke 22:19,20).

“For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread. And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, Take, eat, this is My body which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:23,24).

It is not the bread or juice that has the power, but the act of remembering what Jesus did for us in His death. The communion ritual can bring salvation to a person. The communion ritual can also bring healing.

Remembering the Resurrection

It is not the water of baptism that cleanses us but puts us in remembrance of what Jesus did for us. Taking us with Him in His death and resurrection. When I go under the water and come back up, I am to remember that I was buried with Jesus and risen with Him to newness of life. My former life is gone, and my new eternal life has begun.

Financial Blessing

A command to remember helps us keep from making money and wealth an idol, replacing the true God. The highest use of money in our life is to give to the work of the gospel in our own church and missions works around the world.

“You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who give you power to get wealth that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers as it is this day” (Deuteronomy 8:18).

Your Life Can Be a Testimony – A Remembrance to Others

Your life can be a living testimony, a memorial to those who come after you. You become a faith hero to others, like Abraham, Moses, or Jesus Himself is to you. In other words, your name can be added to the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11.

“The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot” (Proverbs 10:7).

“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you with joy” (Philippians 1:3,4).

Remembrance of the Word is to Be a Life Priority

“For this reason, I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things though you know them and be established in the present truth. Yes, I think it is right as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you.” 2 Peter 1:12,13

Remembering the word brings security to the believer during the best times of blessing and the worst times of persecution.

“I will meditate on Your precepts and contemplate Your ways. I will delight in Your statutes. I will not forget Your word. I will never forget your precepts, for by them You have given me life. My life is continually in my hand, yet I do not forget Your law.  I am small and despised, Yet I do not forget Your precepts” (Psalm 119:15,16,93,109,141).

Memorials Were Built to Remember God’s Deliverance

“This may be a sign among you that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying “what do you mean by these stones?” Then you shall answer them that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant…and these stones shall be a memorial unto the children of Israel forever. the Lord when it passed over Jordan.” Joshua 4:6-8

Memorials come from the word memories. They were altars of stone or stacks of individual stones. Here in Joshua, stones were stacked at the bottom of the Jordan and on the shore entering Canaan to remember the backing up of the river, allowing Israel to go over (Joshua 4). The stones in the Jordan River became visible in times of drought. What a lesson that should be.

I will never forget when God impressed me that I would pastor the church Loretta and I had been attending since it began. We were in the car crossing a bridge over Memorial Drive in Tulsa. God must have a sense of humor.

Abraham, Isaac and Joshua built memorials to remind themselves and their children of God’s faithfulness. Jacob built a memorial where he wrestled with the Angel.

Memories Are Leftovers of Past Miracles

“But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “you of little faith why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread? Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand how many large baskets you took up? How is it you do not understand that I do not speak to you concerning bread?”  Matthew 16:8-11

Bread was supposed to be a memory to the disciples they were supposed to take with them from the last two miracles of the multiplying of the loaves and fishes. Memories are leftovers of past miracles, meals, you experienced.  Pull them out, take a bite and remember how good God has been to you and will be again. Taste and see that the Lord is good!