The past three days on Focus on the Family, Ravi Zacharias has been speaking on “Why We Must Remember.” I have listened as I drove places in the car and have found myself continually shaking my head in agreement. This message that Focus on the Family declares… “The Bible says that God commanded the Israelites to set up a stone monument near the Jordan River so that future generations would remember how He miraculously helped the Jewish people enter the Promised Land. Author and speaker Ravi Zacharias challenges listeners with the question, “What is that God wants us to remember?”
This has been the cry of my heart (this blog, my book, speaking and former business). The importance of recognizing what God has done, recording it in some manner and then remembering it when life is hard to understand. Over and over again, I have asked God to take away this calling, especially as Reminders of Faith is now in the process of closing. But the past 3 days as I listened to this message, I once again felt the passion and the importance of remembering God’s Faithfulness all over again.
So I looked through my old Reminders of Faith writings and found this that I wrote in 2006…
Remember the Wonders
“He has caused His wonders to be remembered.” Psalm 111:4
…”He commanded our fathers to teach to their children so that a future generation – children yet to be born – might know. They were to rise and tell their children so that they might put their confidence in God and not forget God’s work.” Psalm 78:5-7
One of the clearest ways that God calls us to remember is to recall the Bible story of when the Israelites crossed the Jordan. To retell the story a little, God brought Moses and the children of Israel out of Egypt and then because of sin, they had to wander in the desert for 40 years because they didn’t believe that God could take them into the promise land. When God finally lead them into the Promise land, He told each tribe to bring a stone from the Jordan and to build a stone tower. The Lord knew that their children would ask, “What do these stones mean?” They were to respond by sharing God’s faithfulness to bring them to the promise land. This monument served as a reminder to them and their future generations of what God has done. (To read the entire story read Joshua 4 )
Remembering and Recording your Spiritual Journey can be your stone tower because as your children and their children’s children view your recorded memories it will tell them various things – such as what you were interested in, where you spent our time and hopefully most of all how your faith impacted your life.
Photos, journals, frames, videos, and other memories provide a wonderful opportunity to share your journey with God. Birthday memories signify another year of God’s blessings; landscape photos show God’s majesty in His Creation; everyday life memories reveal how God provides without your help. Your memorabilia will leave behind a heritage of who you are, what you believe and offer encouragement for your future generations to put their confidence in God.
If your children were to ask you what your memories mean to you, would the things you leave behind reveal God at work in your life? Share God’s faithfulness by recording about a time when you know that God was working in an incredible way. Tell the facts of what happen including whom, what and when, but also tell of how God worked through the details.
So there it is again, God’s call to remember His faithfulness in my life – I know that I must leave behind my legacy of faith to the next generations who may not have any reminders of the God I serve. I encourage you to take time to listen to Ravi on Focus on the Family and ask yourself what is the legacy you are leaving behind?
