the importance of remembering.

Want to know a secret?

I deal with discouragement more than I care to admit.

I found myself there recently, actually. I’d had a long week, and I was struggling. It just so happened to be the same week that a Christian filmmaker that I love was showing his films for free throughout the week.

Halfway through the week, I decided that I would watch one and, in doing so, an awesome thing happened.

Something began to ignite on the inside of me. 

Watching the documentary reminded me of things that the Holy Spirit had told me about my life, and it reminded me of the faithfulness of God in different seasons. That one film helped me to remember an entire faith-filled season of my life and that the impossible is not impossible with God.

Then, I realized why I struggled so much with discouragement -- discouragement is inevitable for the one who doesn’t do a good job of remembering the faithfulness of the Lord.

“... be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery,” - Deuteronomy 6:12, NIV

This verse was addressed to the Israelites, and God was only asking one thing of them, 

“Do not forget.”

In case you don’t know anything about the Israelites, they always forgot. 

The Israelites complained about one thing after another, constantly accusing God of his lack of faithfulness to them.

Does this maybe sound familiar?

I know it does for me. 

Psalm 78 tells of a cycle of God’s faithfulness to a people who “didn’t really believe the promises of God; they refused to trust Him and move forward in faith. They forgot His wonderful works and the miracles of the past,” (v.10-11, TPT). The entire chapter outlines instance after instance of the Israelites getting into trouble, God delivering them, them forgetting and turning their backs on Him, Him delivering them again, and them forgetting again. 

I read Psalm 78, and it honestly convicted me.

I can recount CRAZY stories of God’s faithfulness to me -- stories and encounters that silenced the lie that God didn’t see me or care about my life. I can read back over old journals and point out miracles that I’m currently living in. Yet, I have been really bad at being intentional of remembering His faithfulness to me.
 

But I'm encouraged because it's not too late to change.

Forgetting will inevitably lead to fear, unbelief, disobedience, pride, and apathy.

But we don’t have to be those people!

We can choose to “stay up,” not giving into the constant faith roller coaster of highest highs and lowest lows. 

Today, we can choose to be intentional, giving more attention to the faithfulness of God.

We can record the faithfulness of God through the discipline of journaling.

We can swap out some of the tv dramas for more faith-filled content/shows.  

We can pay attention to what we're watching and what we're listening to! 

I want to live full of faith, ready to believe all that God has to say, not tainted by unbelief or discouragement.

At the end of our lives, let it be said of us,

“...I never forgot any of your miracles, my God, and I remembered all of your wonders of old. I pondered all you’ve done, Lord, musing on all your miracles,” (Psalm 77: 11-12, TPT)