Pleasing God by How You Remember

Remember the Alamo. Just six days ago I sat at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas and listened to a historical presentation on the story of the battle between the Texians and the army of Santa Anna. I toured what remains of the historic Alamo battle site. And sometime last Thursday, I got the phrase stuck in my head, “Remember the Alamo.” That phrase is still in my head. Remember the Alamo.

But that’s not the only phrase with the word remember that keeps coming into my thoughts. All this week, I’ve been thinking of multitudes of phrases with the word remember. Okay, maybe not multitudes. To be precise, there have been three.

The second is a phrase from Psalm 119. It says, “Remember the word to Your servant, in which You have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your word has revived me” (Psalm 119:49-50). In this case, the Psalmist is asking God to remember.

And the third time I saw the word remember repeated multiple times this week was in a Christian biography. The individual would think things like, “Remember how God was faithful when…?  Remember when God answered your prayer for…?” and so on.

So all these triggers with the word remember have made me think about the significance of remembering. 

Now before I go any farther, let me add, I’m fascinated by how people think. I don’t care about how most people think, actually. But, I’m interested in the specific thoughts of people who live godly lives that others can imitate.

I would love to roll back the curtain on the thoughts of someone like the apostle Paul and look at how he thought. What did he think when he was doing boring things? What about when he prepared his food? Did he preach to himself? Did he remind himself of things? What specific phrases did he use? How did he keep his mind focused on Scripture without wandering into some unedifying thought?

One of those things that I suppose godly men like Paul think is that they remember. Now, I know Paul said we are to forget what lies behind (Phil. 3:13), and forgetting is the opposite of remembering, but at other times he told us specific things to remember. For instance, in Ephesians 2, Paul tells us to remember how we were at one time separated from Christ—having no hope and without God in the world. He wants us to remember what it was like to not have Christ, knowing now that we are saved and have hope. We are to remember where we came from because these memories provoke us to gratitude and love and cause us to move forward.

Listen, we can’t use anything from the past as an excuse to not move forward with maximum effort. That’s why Paul tells us to forget what lies behind. But when we remember what God has done, the point is to stir us up to keep moving forward. Like in Revelation, Jesus tells the church at Ephesus, “Remember from where you have fallen” (Revelation 2:5). He wants the people to remember how they felt when they were first saved. He wants them to remember their excitement and love for God, because love for God is the compelling reason why they should keep pressing on to follow Christ.

To be specific, anything we remember must fit the criteria of Philippians 4:8. Which means it must be true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent, and praiseworthy.

God wants us to remember His faithfulness and to remember truths learned from the Bible. 1 Chronicles 16:12 sums it up perfectly: “Remember His wonderful deeds which He has done, His marvels and the judgments from His mouth.”

The Israelites put up large memorial stones to remember the miracles God did for them, so that even their children would ask, “Why are these stones here?” And the parents would remember to tell their children the miracles God did for them. We take communion at church to remember the death of Jesus for our sins on the cross. We memorize the Bible so we will remember it.

Our memories can serve us so that we remember God’s faithfulness and His Word, and grow by what we remember. Or our memories can be used to hinder our walk with God.

So here is my challenge: Every time you catch yourself remembering something that isn’t honorable, praiseworthy, pure, true, right and so forth, begin to speak in your mind, “Remember…” and then list the good things God has done for you. For me, I like to reflect on times God has answered my prayers. I’ve said to myself, “Remember how many nights of my life I have prayed for God to protect me, and He has always protected me? Remember how every time my kids were sick, I prayed for them to be healed, and God always healed them? Remember how when Todd (my husband) was out of work, and I cried to the Lord, and He heard me and gave Todd a job? Remember how I was driving on a long trip many years ago, and when the car in front of me stopped suddenly on the one lane highway at 70 MPH, it was by a miracle that I did not crash?” And I remember many more wonderful things God has done for me.

And as I remember God’s faithfulness in my own life, I can’t help but be thankful and press on to follow Christ because of all He has already done for me.

“Remember His wonderful deeds which He has done, His marvels and the judgments from His mouth” (1 Chronicles 16:12).