Remember? If you’re going through a relationship crises, remembering may be a painful thing. Seeing an old photo or driving by a location may cause you to remember a time when things were better in your relationship. Remembering even these good times can be a painful experience in the light of your current crises.
And then there are those other memories. The painful memories of conflict, of words said that you wish you could take back . . . but can’t.
But in Christ, Remembrance during hard times is an important part of drawing close to God. This special Remembering can be wonderfully healing and is a guardian against depression and hopelessness. This remembering involves reviewing all the things the Lord has done. I think about all the times the Lord has come through for me in the past – the amazing “coincidences” where I prayed about a problem and He came through. Or the times when I was suffering, but I know Christ was right there with me.
There’s an example of this Godly remembrance in the Bible.
In Psalm 77, the writer is going through a crises, and in the middle of the night he can’t sleep because of his anguish. He tells the Lord “You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.” But he turns his mind and begins to remember the Lord’s care and love for him. He says “I call to remembrance my song in the night.”
And I said, “This is my anguish; But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
I will remember the works of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.
I will also meditate on all Your work, And talk of Your deeds.
So he acknowledges the crisis (“this is my anguish”) but remembers and rests upon the past years of the Lord’s goodness.
The final act of this remembrance is to recall one thing: the Lord’s goodness has not changed even during your crises. If the Lord came through in the past, he’ll come through again in His own special way. As the psalmist says in Psalm 27:
I would have despaired, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the LORD
In the land of the living.
