Memory

The memory is an interesting thing. There are things I remember and things that I don’t. I wonder why. There are things I wish I could remember and some things I wish I could forget. Why do people at the same event remember different things about it? Why do some things stand out in our memories and other things fade away?

Did you know that the Bible has a lot to say about remembering? God challenged the Israelites through David to remember all that He had done for them. “Remember His marvelous works which He has done, His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth…Remember His covenant forever, the word which He commanded, for a thousand generations” (I Chronicles 16:12 &15).

But unfortunately, Israel didn’t remember. “They did not keep the covenant of God;

They refused to walk in His law, and forgot His works and His wonders that He had shown them” (Psalm 78:10-11). How sad! They paid the price for that. From captivity in Babylon, they wept when they “remembered Zion.” Their memories were too little too late. But let’s check our memories. Do we always remember what God has done for us?

God knows our tendency to forget. Maybe that’s why it’s so important to enter into the act of communion (or the Lord’s Supper) often, as we call to mind Christ’s sacrifice. “This do in remembrance of Me,” Jesus said (Luke 22:19, I Corinthians 11:24-25). The visual symbols help jog our memories, don’t they?

Here’s another side to the coin, though. Paul showed us that it’s sometimes good to forget. “Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). We need to forget our past failures and accomplishments as we look forward to what lies ahead. And I think we need to throw off any victim mentality about our brokenness in order to revel in what God has done and will continue to do as we give ourselves to Him.

Is your memory redeemed? Cleansed by the Spirit of God and renewed by His power? Are you letting the Master create new memories in your heart that will bolster your faith in the future?