God Speaking

“I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds.”

(Psalm 77:11 – 12)

This week our family celebrated the birthday of our first born daughter and when it arrived my mind was flooded with memories of that special day and I remembered where we were living at the time and marvelled yet again at how she had survived in the hands of two inexperienced young people like us, who had left our own country and were living in London with no family to support us and all our friends being about the same age. Those same friends did support us and memories of their help still brings a rush of warm feelings and thankfulness when I relive those days in my mind. My thoughts about my first born made me think about another young mother who certainly had a much different situation than mine to contend with and yet we are told, she made a special effort to store up everything that happened that day in her mind, so the memories would be saved;

“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19)

Mary treasured all those miraculous signs that proved what the angel Gabriel had told her about this Son of the Most High. Those memories would sustain her and support her even through the dreadful crucifixion of her precious son.

One of the most important reasons to go over our memories, especially those troublesome, scary or sad times, is to recall how our Lord was able to guide us through those choppy waters. Too often once we survive one of those experiences we tend to forget where the help came from and just give a big sigh of relief that we made it through. So firstly, we need to store firmly in our minds who the thanks are due to, and to keep remembering this so we can praise His Name and then secondly we need to draw upon that storehouse of memories to give us strength for the next time we are assailed by woes.

It is not only the bad times we need to store in our memory, remembering the joy and the love we exchange with our Heavenly Father keeps our relationship alive and vibrant by remembering the delight it brings us;

“Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who take delight in them.” (Psalm 111:2)

Often the advice for couples in their marriage is to remember why they first fell in love with each other and to keep those memories alive by keeping them as vibrant thoughts. Good advice for us as well to never let our love for the Lord to grow cold and lifeless because his love for us will never change.

In the book of Proverbs, wisdom is portrayed as a craftsman watching the Creator forming the world and us. What a beautiful mental picture to store away in our memory, of the world and us being created to bring him delight.

“Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.” (Proverbs 8:30 – 31)

Filling our minds with memories of the powerful helper always at our side and then to remember how the Lord delights in us will certainly keep us focused and we don’t have to run to the computer or any other device, we can just sit quietly in his presence and allow the memories to flood in.