The Power of Holy Memory: Transforming Faith Through Reflection
Summary: Your physical eyes also play a role in seeing God by seeing His glory reflected in the goodness of what He made (“check your mirrors”). Emblems are not really seen unless they are interpreted.
Sanctify your memory by…
1. Making much of experiences of God’s presence (celebrate!)
2. Taking advantage of night time (insomnia = a summons).
3. Fill your day with reminders
This will enable you to receive greater comfort from God.
Review
This is week 12 of a study of Psalm 63. So far we have learned 4 ways to love God more.
1) Resolve – resolving to prefer God above anything else.
2) Desire – hungering and thirsting for God.
3) Earnestly seeking God – pressing hard after Him.
4) Seeing God.
In David’s lifetime he had seen God doing some amazing, awesome works of power – deliverance from armies and a giant and wild animals - but when he really longed for an experience of God’s power and glory, he wanted to go to the place where the presence of God is most powerfully revealed: the sanctuary. That is where David saw God, and it is where you and I can see God. You go to the place where God’s presence is most powerfully revealed, the gathered church, and you can see God like David did.
I do not mean you see His full glory – no one can see God that way. Seeing, in this context, means experiencing what is wonderful about an attribute of God. Your eyes are opened to what is astonishing and encouraging and comforting about a certain attribute so that it actually has the effect of astonishing or encouraging or comforting your soul. That is what it means to see God.
And when that happens it causes transformation because it strengthens faith. When you try to tell your soul that the pleasure of fellowship with God is preferable to the pleasure of sin, you will be able to make a plausible argument. You can point your soul to the experience you had of seeing God, and your soul will be convinced at the moment of temptation – fellowship with God really is better. I would actually rather have that than sin right now. And when your soul is convinced like that, that is faith.
We also talked last time about the three kinds of worship:
1. Joy in seeing God
2. Longing for that joy
3. Repentance over indifference.
If your soul is moved in one of those three ways, that is true worship. If your soul is not moved at all, it is not worship.
I want to say a few more things about seeing God before we move on to our next point.
Seeing God as in a mirror
The way to see the invisible God is by having the eyes of your heart opened to God’s goodness through faith. But that is not to say that your physical eyes play no role at all; they play a crucial role. A lot of seeing God has to do with the way you use your physical eyes.
Ps.19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God
If you look up at the sky with your physical eyes, you may or may not see the glory of God. Just because you physically see the stars doesn’t mean you are seeing God’s glory. However, you can not see the glory of God displayed in the heavens without using your physical eyes. If you look at the creation the right way you can see God’s glory with your physical eyes.
2 Cor.3:18 and 1 Cor.13:12 both talk about seeing God as in a mirror. When you look at a reflective surface, what you see depends on how you look. If you focus your eyes on the glass of a window, you just see the glass. But if you focus on the reflection you can see what is being reflected. It is the same way with a computer screen. Suppose you are working on your computer and behind you is a glorious sunset, and you have a choice – you can either focus your eyes on the words on your screen, or you can focus on the reflection of the sunset. If you are focusing on the words, you can not really pay attention to the sunset. And if you focus on the sunset you can not really pay attention to the words.
Everything God made in this world is like that computer screen. The things in this world are like the words on the screen; and the glory of God is like the sunset. The world can only see the words on the screen. But a Christian, if she focuses the right way, can see the glory of Christ.
If you look up at the sky and all you see is sky, it is because you are focusing on the glass or on the words on the screen. But if you look at what the sky reflects you can see God’s glory. It is the same way with the sun and moon, or clouds, or a pencil or a piece of dirt. That is why God gave you eyes – so you could see His glory.
When you look at something that is beautiful or pleasing or good in any way, that goodness or beauty or wonder is a reflection of God’s beauty, goodness and wonder. God wants us to know about His vastness in an experiential way, so He gives us something to look at that is vast beyond what we can understand. He wants us to know what His beauty is like, so He gives us things in the creation to look at that are beautiful. He wants us to know how complex He is so He gives us things that are complex to look at. He wants us to see how clean he has made our hearts, so He gave us white snow to look at. He wants is to see how our souls will flourish in His presence so He gave us trees and plants that thrive and grow when they are well-watered. He wants us to see what it is like to be cared for by Him, so He gave us nursing mothers. He wants us to see how overwhelming and abundant and unending are His delights, and so He gave us rivers to look at and then talked about His river of delights.
Whenever you see an illustration in Scripture (white as snow, like a rock, like a mountain, like the skies, etc.) – train yourself to make those memory cues so that whenever you look at those things in the creation – the sky or a mountain or a rock or snow - you see the thing God intended for that to represent.
We have a saying around our house – “check your mirrors.” In driver’s ed they teach you to check your mirrors every few seconds so you are aware of what is going on around you. We need to do the same thing spiritually. Every few seconds, all through the day – check your mirrors. Stop looking at the objects themselves and look closely at the meaning of those objects.
The things God created are emblems – tiny, little models of grand realities. Learn to look at them as emblems. If you look at an emblem without seeing the meaning, you do not really see it. If you look at an American flag and all you see is some fabric – you do not see an emblem that represents our country; then you are not really seeing what is there. If you look at a $100 bill and all you see is about 8 square inches of paper, and you do not see money; then you are not seeing what is there. If you look at a little gift box that a rich, generous friend gives you with keys to a brand new Mercedes inside, and all you see is a box with some pieces of metal – you do not see a wonderful gift – then you are not seeing what is there.
Everything God made is an emblem. If you look at a tree and all you see is a beautiful tree; If you look at the stars and all you see is stars; If you look at a person and all you see is a person; then you are not seeing what is really there. You need to check your mirrors. You need to learn what the emblems represent.
If someone makes you laugh – there is something good about that. And the reason that good thing is there is to give you a glimpse of one of the rays of God’s glory.Any time you find your heart saying, “I like that” or “I’m enjoying this” let that be a memory cue to remind you that you like it and it is pleasurable because it is a tiny emblem that represents a grand truth about God’s goodness. God wanted you to understand how joyful and pleasurable it is to be in His presence, so He created people who can make you laugh, and people who can make you feel safe, and people who can comfort you and teach you and help you and encourage you and be a companion to you - he created those people as little emblems that represent something of what He is like. We need to learn to see them as emblems, not as having significance in and of themselves.
If you feel a gentle breeze, interpret that as an emblem – showing you something of the gentleness of God. Since God is in direct control of the breeze, a gentle breeze is literally God touching your face. The guy right next to you might also be enjoying the breeze, but he’s not enjoying God. For him it is just air. But for you it is the Almighty Creator stooping down and gently touching your face. He sees nothing. You see the glory of God.
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So David has taught us so far 4 things we can do to gain a greater love for God:
1) Resolve to prefer God above everything else.
2) Hunger and thirst for God.
3) Earnestly seek God – pressing hard after Him.
4) Behold God – see His glory.
Now let’s look at a 5th.
Remember
Oh God you are my god, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 For I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.
David sought God earnestly. And he was able to be that earnest about it because he was so hungry and thirsty for God. And the reason he was so hungry and thirsty for God was because he remembered his past experiences with God. One very crucial component to loving God is holy memory.
Memory is the key to obedience
It would be hard to overstate the importance of memory in your love relationship with God. According to James, the key to getting from hearing to doing is remembering. You will never succeed in putting God’s Word into practice if you do not remember it.
Jas.1:22-25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-- he will be blessed in what he does.
So if you are frustrated because you keep learning things from Scripture but you can not seem to put them into practice, one possibility is that it is a problem with remembering.
All memory is selective
It seems to me that we forget almost everything we ever think. You have thoughts and experiences all day long every day - every second of every day you are having some experience and at least one thought, which comes out to about 173,000 thoughts and experiences just yesterday. I remember a few things about yesterday, but not 173,000 things. One percent of that would be close to 2000 memories just from yesterday. So if you remember less than that from yesterday it means you already forgot over 99% of what went through your mind yesterday.
Once in a while a person will be accused of having selective memory. You say to your kids, “I want you to clean up your room, do the rest of your chores, get your homework done, then you can watch TV or talk on the phone. And there are some cookies in the pantry for after you eat your lunch.” You leave the house, come back home, and discover that their little minds were as sharp as a tack when it came to remembering the cookies and the watching TV, but some of those other points somehow got lost in their memory banks. We call that selective memory.
But the truth is all memory is selective memory. When you remember that less-than-1% of what happened yesterday, that tiny little bit that you remember is very selective.
What you select reveals character
When your brain latches on to one thought or event out of a thousand, the one it picks is not random.
Mostly we only remember things that impact our affections in a powerful way and things we rehearse over and over. Both have a great deal to do with character. The things you replay in your mind you replay for a reason. And the things that touch your affections touch your affections because your affections are inclined a certain way. A godly, righteous soul will be thrilled by truly great things. A worldly soul will be moved by worthless, worldly things.
If a big game is coming up and you think about it ahead of time and build up anticipation and suspense, and then you give it your full attention, and you turn your affections toward it so you are all excited by what happens, and as the day goes on you rehearse what happened in your mind and you talk to others about it; that game is going to imprint itself into your memory. A godly person will do that kind of thing with God and His works.
When your heart is drawn toward worthless things more than eternal things, so that the worthless things stick in your mind and the eternal things do not, God regards that as a willful act of sin. The things we remember are not outside of our control. In 2 Peter 5 Peter warns us about the scoffers who will mock God and say, “Where is this ‘coming’ He promised?” Then in v.5 Peter says, But they deliberately forget about Noah’s flood. Their forgetting is ultimately an act of their will.
Bad memory or evil memory?
I have a very bad memory. By that I mean it is really hard for me to remember the things I want to remember. But I also have something a lot worse than a bad memory – an evil memory. Being forgetful in general is a handicap, but a much worse problem than that is having an evil memory. Rehearsing and being moved by trivial things more than eternal things, worldly things instead of heavenly things – that is the real problem.
Israel’s failure in the Exodus was all about what they did with their memory.
Dt.4:9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live.
The natural course of things is for the mighty acts of God to slip from our hearts. God does something wonderful, you praise Him and thank Him for it, and not 30 minutes later it has slipped right out of your heart – and you do not think about it again. So God warned Israel again and again not to forget.
Dt.7:18 remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh
Dt.8:2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years
Dt.9:7 Remember this and never forget
Dt.6:12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
If they just would have remembered, they would have been fine. But…
Ps.78:11 They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.
Jdg.8:33-34 They set up Baal-Berith as their god and 34 did not remember the LORD their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side.
If you read Ps.106:12 by itself you might think they were doing great.
Then they believed his promises and sang his praise.
You would think that would be enough to keep you on track – faith and praise. But it was not enough.
13 But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his counsel.
Israel went astray because they forgot. It was a memory issue. You know how long it took them to forget the parting of the Red Sea? Three days. God delivered them from what seemed to be certain death, and destroyed Pharaoh’s entire army in the sea while letting Israel walk through on dry ground, and three days later they got to Marah and the water was bitter, and they grumbled. Three days.
How often we are like that - so few steps between our singing and sinning. If you are like me you can come to church and praise and exult in Him and believe His promises and be so close to Him, and three days later – or even the very next day – or even later Sunday afternoon; we fall into complete forgetfulness. A temptation comes and suddenly years of theological training evaporates, and we can not think of a good enough reason to resist. It is not hard for me to see that my memory is affected by indwelling sin. My memory is like a strainer in a river – catching sticks and garbage and debris and filth while the pure, clean water just flows right through. What a strange perversity our sin inflicts upon our memory. We treasure up garbage and permit priceless treasures to lie neglected. It tenaciously grips wrongs done against me or indulgences in the world’s delights and the taste of the delicacies of sin, and holds so loosely the grand benefits from God’s hand and the memory of the tastes of His river of delights. Every Christians struggles with this. Even David had to preach to his soul and call upon his soul to forget not the Lord’s benefits. (Ps.103:2)
God wanted the Israelites to remember what He had done. He wanted them especially to remember about their slavery in Egypt.
Dt.5:15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm
Dt.15:15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you.
Dt.16:12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt,
Dt.24:18,22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there. ...
22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt.
Did they remember? They remembered something -
Nm.11:5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost-- also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.
You see the problem was not so much a failure or inability to remember. The problem was what they remembered. Their problem was not bad memory; it was evil memory. Evil memory remembers the food and forgets the slavery. Evil memory remembers the pleasures of sin and forgets the horrible bondage. Evil memory paints a rosy picture of what it was like prior to being delivered, and forgets the mighty work of God in delivering you.
We all have a selective memory – highly selective. We all select less than 1% of what passes through our minds. And what we select reveals the pursuit and appetite of our hearts.
Israel couldn’t seem to remember the mighty acts of God, the horror of their slavery faded from their memory, they forgot about their anguished pleas and cries to God to deliver them from Egypt, but they never forgot the free food. Years later they can rattle off the whole menu from memory.
That is convicting to me. I love food. And I think about it a lot. And if you catch me at the end of a day when God has shown some special grace in my prayer time and I’ve also had a really good meal at the Cheesecake factory or some other physical pleasure, and you look into my heart, there is a good chance you will see that my mind is rehearsing the temporal pleasure and has forgotten about the glory of God that was revealed to me that day. We are so prone to remember fleshly pleasures and forget higher, greater joys. So what can we do to improve in this area? How can I develop a more holy memory?
How to sanctify the memory
1. Make much of God’s your experiences of God’s presence.
The first thing this psalm teaches us is to do just what David did – make much of God’s expressions of love. When you have a time like David had in the Sanctuary, where your eyes are opened to see God’s glory in a powerful way, make much of that. Talk about it, write about it, sing about it, think about it, pray about it – celebrate it. Treat it like you treat things that you consider to be a big deal. The more important something is to us, the more we celebrate it. If you get a big promotion at work, or graduate from college, or some other big event, it is not uncommon for people to go out and celebrate. People spend thousands of dollars celebrating big wedding anniversaries. When’s the last time you celebrated some rich, wonderful experience of God’s presence? I think most of us put more energy into celebrating our own birthday than celebrating special experiences of the grace of God.
So when those times come when you have an especially profound experience of the presence of God – make much of that. Take your wife out to dinner. Sit down and write out a prayer of thanksgiving about it, and express your joy so that you can read that later on and remember. Mark it on your calendar. Make it a big deal because it is a big deal. What every happens in your life that is a bigger deal? Nothing.
But in order to do this you and I have to overcome an obstacle that most people in most times throughout history haven’t had to overcome as much. To one degree or another we are all products of our own culture. Even as Christians we are influenced by the naturalistic worldview of our culture. Instead of seeing God doing things we see gravity doing things – or nature or the laws of physics or chance. We tend not to attribute much to God, even though Scripture is clear that all things are from Him. So before we can remember that God did something good first we have to realize that it was indeed God who did that good thing.
Train yourself to interpret every joy as a response to one of God’s good acts. Every flicker of delight, peace, contentment, happiness, encouragement, motivation – let them register in your mind as God’s works so you can remember them as such.
It seems to me that when we have good feelings, it is usually not the feeling that we remember later on, but the circumstance that our mind assigns as the cause of that feeling. If I feel really good one day, and I decide it is because I went skiing, then the skiing is what lodges itself in my memory. So if later on I’m going to replay something in my mind, it is going to tend to be the skiing. What we need to learn to do, then, is assign God’s presence and special favor as the cause of all our joys. We need to clearly, explicitly draw that connection in our minds so that every time we feel good or feel happy or feel encouraged, instead of assigning those feeling to whatever activity we are doing, so that we have fond memories of that activity, we assign them to the presence of God so that we have fond memories of fellowship with Him. If you have a great day skiing it is not because of the snow; it is not because of the sliding down the hill; it is not because of the beauty or the outdoors or the excitement; it is only because of the presence and favor of God (when you do not have the favor and presence of God it is impossible to generate joy in your heart even if you ski the best ski slopes in the world).
2. Take advantage of night time
Psalm 63:6 On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.
All through this study the question has come up: “How can I have fellowship with God all through the day? I have to concentrate on my work, and I can not think of two things at once.” We have talked about how to deal with that problem – taking advantage of transitions, etc. But if that is our excuse for why we do not commune with God during the day, what about at night?
We all have times when we can’t sleep. I used to hate those times – now I love them. When you can’t sleep, get out of bed and do what David did – remember God through the watches of the night. Prayer times can be incredibly profound at night. The house is quiet, the phone doesn’t ring, there is nothing you were planning on doing (because you thought you would be sleeping) - it is the perfect time to spend extended times with God in prayer. No doubt that is why Jesus would get up in the middle of the night to pray in a solitary place.
Whenever I can’t sleep I take that as a direct, personal invitation from God to come meet with Him. Ps.127:2 says that God grants sleep to those He loves. It is God who decides when you can sleep and when you can not. So when I can’t sleep I take that as a direct summons – just as if God were calling my name out loud. I’m trying to learn to always respond like Samuel, “Here I am Lord.” And Oh, how rewarding that has been! I commend this to you.
I used to try to just stay in bed and pray. It took me about 20 years of that to realize it doesn’t work. If I try to pray while laying in bed my prayer will last about 10 seconds before I get distracted with something else. I need to have my Bible open in front of me, and a place to write my prayers, and I have to be in a place that tells my flesh, “This is a time for seeking hard after God – nothing else.” Sometimes that is on my knees in my office, other times it is in my recliner chair – but it is not in bed.
And if the Lord summons you with some insomnia, and your flesh tries to tell you to stay in bed because you need your rest, remind your flesh that if you ignore God’s summons, it is not likely that you are going to get any rest. If He is using insomnia to call you, He may very well keep calling you all night. Some of my most restful night’s sleep have come after I’ve gotten up and spent time with Him in the middle of the night. And that is amazing for me, because if I get up out of bed for any other reason usually that means I won’t go back to sleep the rest of the night. But many times after going to Him in prayer I have been able to go back to sleep.
And besides that, even if it does cost you some sleep, so what? Wouldn’t a night spent in God’s presence strengthen you more than the most restful sleep?
Job 23:12 I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.
If Job treasured God’s words more than his daily food, shouldn’t we treasure God’s presence more than our daily sleep?
If God is summoning you, chances are you are going to experience His presence in a greater way than you normally do in your daily prayers. And night is such a wonderful time for the soul that wants to forget the distractions of this world and rise to a higher sphere. The darkness and quiet allow long periods of deep contemplation. It grieves me when I think about all the times in my life I’ve ignored God’s summons and squandered the opportunity to meet with Him at night. So many times I have lain in my bed, unable to sleep, and have thought about some stupid TV show or some upcoming conversation or replayed some event of the past day. What a waste. If we just put forth the effort of remembering the things God has done and contemplating the truths about Him that We have learned recently and combined the memories of His works with the truth of His nature so that the vision of His glory comes into greater focus – oh the joy and satisfaction that would flood our souls!
People in the world use those precious nighttime hours to go to the bars and revel in drunkenness and pursuit of pleasure that leaves them dissatisfied, depressed, hung over, conscience-stricken and broke. But we have something we could do at night that would leave us utterly satisfied, full of hope, energized, cleansed and empowered.
And even nights that we can sleep just fine, we can at least begin and end those nights with memories of God’s wonderful acts. One of the things I have been doing is making the memory of God’s acts of faithfulness and kindness the subject of my thoughts every night as I fall asleep.
Before getting in bed I kneel on the floor at my bedside (kneeling is a great way to remind your flesh that you are praying and not doing something else), and I just recall all the wonderful things God did that day. And then I recall one of God’s acts recorded in Scripture. And I just take a moment to think about those, and savor them, and enjoy being the child of a God who does those kinds of things. And then I climb into bed, and try to keep rehearsing them in my mind as I go to sleep. And I know I have succeeded when it is my first thought in the morning.
3. Fill your day with reminders
Just in case it is not already obvious enough to you that in order to remember you need reminders, God told us that repeatedly in His Word.
2 Peter 1:12-15 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.
Notice that he says they knew the truths and were firmly established in them. I used to think that if I knew some biblical principle or truth about God and was firmly established in it that I would be fine – I would know it all my life. I realize now that is not even close to being true. I spend 20 hours in a week studying a passage of Scripture I’m going to preach, then I write a sermon, and preach it, and still I forget most of it within a few weeks. People ask me if I listen to my own past sermon tapes. I have to. If I don’t I will forget most of what I learned.
One of the complaints people have had in the past about my preaching has been that there is too much material packed into one sermon. It is impossible to remember it all, and all it does is make you dizzy. In an age when most sheep are being starved by their shepherds, I can’t bring myself to reduce the amount I offer in a sermon. So I have decided to begin writing devotionals that are based on the major points in the sermons – one for each weekday. Go to the Devotionals page on www.TreasuringGod.com (under Resource Library) and each day you will find a short, simple devotional that is related to the previous week’s sermon. If you just take a few minutes each morning to pray through that devotional, and mediate on it carefully throughout that day, by the end of the week those truths should be a little more solidified in your head. This is one way you could put into practice the principle of this lesson. Commit to do these devotionals each day.
Beyond that, on the right side of that web page is the verse of the week. That verse also comes from the sermon. So if you memorize that verse each Monday and review it each day, and meditate on it all through the week, that will solidify the principles from the sermon in your mind all the more.
God designed us to need review. And He also designed us to need reminders. All the feasts God commanded in the OT were for reminders, so the people would not forget God’s awesome deeds. Communion is a reminder – “Do this in remembrance of Me.” God knows that we need constant reminds all day long.
Nm.15:38-40 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. 39 You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. 40 Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God.
God commanded that they dress a certain way as a memory cue. And this is where the review from last week about checking your mirrors fits with the principle of holy memory. Try to make everything in your daily life a memory cue. And you can do that by seeing the wonderful things about God that are reflected in the mirror of everything you see. If you had developed a habit of always thinking of God’s promise to cleanse your heart as white as snow every time you saw snow, just think how much you would have thought about God’s work of redemption the past few weeks with all the snow storms!
• Whenever you see food or drink remember how satisfying God is to the soul.
• Whenever you see rain and its effect on the earth remember that God is like water to your soul.
• Whenever you see a dog remember to be sober and alert as if that dog were a roaring lion.
• Whenever you see grass remember that God makes you lie down in green pastures and restore your soul.
• Whenever you see mountains remember God’s loftiness, beauty, majesty, remoteness, and hiddenness.
• Whenever you see someone who doesn’t deserve something he’s asking for remember God’s grace.
• Whenever you see hospitality remember that God sets a table before you.
• Whenever you see a doctor remember that God is the Great Physician who is at working healing your soul right at this moment.
• Whenever you see a pregnant woman or a baby or small child remember the incarnation.
• Whenever you see a wind storm and feel it overtake you remember that God’s goodness and mercy are as impossible to outrun as that wind.
• Whenever you see a sunrise or new moon or New Year remember that God is the God of new beginnings and second chances.
• Whenever you see a bumpy road or a smooth, plowed road remember that God is the leveler of your path.
• Whenever you see a road sign remember that God guides His children.
• Whenever you see the lowliness of man remember the God who elevated such lowly creatures to such heights.
• Whenever you see barriers to communication remember that nothing can prevent His ears of mercy from hearing your cries of faith.
• Whenever you see a person being unresponsive to someone else remember how responsive and attentive God is to you.
• Whenever you see something being poured out remember that He worthy for you to pour out your heart before Him.
• Whenever you see a door remember that God’s love is the access to His presence.
• Whenever you see the comfort of your house remember the warmth God’s as your refuge and that His presence is the only true shelter.
• Whenever you see your windshield and feel no wind remember that you are zooming through life with God’s care as a constant windshield protecting you from ten million deadly perils that you can not even see.
• Whenever you see a symbol of honor remember your crown.
• Whenever you are invited into someone’s home remember that God adopted you into His own family.
• Whenever you see something you treasure remember you are God’s treasured possession!
• Whenever you see sunshine remember the warmth and vastness and over-supply of God’s mercy.
• Whenever you get cold because the sun went behind a cloud remember how foolish it is to shade God’s kindness to you by sinning.
• Whenever you see a child’s tears or the compassion of a parent remember that God is 1000 times more compassionate toward you.
• Whenever you see someone’s face up close remember what it means that God calls you to seek His face. And enjoy standing before His face.
• Whenever you see something put in a safe place remember that your soul is safely tucked away in the vault of His love.
• Whenever you see a child or woman eager for the comforting, encouraging, protecting, soothing embrace of a mother or husband remember Your Husband in heaven.
• Whenever you see email remember that God never wants email prayers (where you are not in the presence of the one you are communicating to).
• Whenever you see evil rejoice over how much God hates evil.
• Whenever you see a computer keyboard, where the letters seem randomly placed but are actually placed very intentionally for the best results, remember that is also true of the chaos of life.
• Whenever you see a police cars remember that God punishes evil and rewards righteousness and who protects the weak from injustice.
• Whenever you see injustice remember how perfect is God’s justice.
• Whenever you see the variety of God’s creation remember the great variety of the unlimited “all you can eat” bounty of His love.
• Whenever you see car headlights remember how God’s love and faithfulness go out before Him.
• Whenever you see someone smile (especially at you) remember that the entire goal of your existence is to be on the receiving end of God’s smile.
• Whenever you hear of an earthquake or other “natural” disaster remember the awesome power of a mere glance from God’s unhappy face.
• Whenever you see forces that dwarf your strength remember your Protector, who handles those forces like toys in His hand.
• Whenever a dark place is lit up remember God’s self-revealing nature.
• Whenever you see something that needs to be anchored remember that God is His own stability – He needs no foundation or anchor. And what He holds steady, nothing and no one can budge.
• Whenever you see a newspaper or newscast remember His governance of this world.
• Whenever you see the strict obedience of the creation to God’s lordship in the natural laws (like in the flight of a bird), remember the goodness of His reign and the great privilege of being reigned over by Him.
• Whenever you see something impressive remember how far short that thing falls of God’s glory.
• Whenever you see the sun, moon or especially the stars remember that God created all that with the breath of His mouth.
• Whenever you see someone sin rejoice over the mighty bulldozer of God’s unassailable plan which flattens all opposition that arises in front of it.
• Whenever you see dense traffic or huge crowds remember that every motion and thought of every one of them is an outworking of God’s marvelous plan that you get to watch unfold.
And when you see all these emblems and find them to be inadequate to satisfy the longings of your soul – when a mountain doesn’t really awe you or a breeze doesn’t really comfort you or a smile doesn’t really encourage you - remember that emblems are only emblems. And what that emblem represents but can’t provide in itself, God actually provides in fullness.
When you are struck with how beautiful some person is, or how tasty some food is, or how good some air conditioning feels, or how comfortable some chair is, or how fun some vacation would be, or how exciting some ministry would be – let your first thought always be, “Oh Lord, how utterly incapable that thing is of satisfying me; and how fully capable Your love is of satisfying me – teach me to prefer You.”
Take one memory cue from the list above (or one of your own) and develop a habit of always being reminded of that principle when you see that thing. When you have done that for a few weeks or months or however long it takes to really become a habit, add another one.
This will be a joy!
If all that sounds like a lot of hard, arduous, oppressive work- no doubt it will take some effort and some self-discipline, but I can assure you it will also be a great joy. Remembering God is hard at first, but it pays off huge dividends. Not only will it help you obey God more, as we saw in James and Dt., but it will fill up your life with joy. And it will enable you to delight more in God and to receive much more comfort from Him.
When Asaph hit bottom in his life there was only one thing that pulled him out of it. In the first 9 vv. of Ps.77 he talks about how unbearable his depression was, and how nothing could comfort him. He was discouraged and depressed and felt like God had abandoned him, and in that condition the only thing that was able to get him turned around and fill him with joy again was remembering God.
Psalm 77:10-12 Then I thought, "To this I will appeal … 11 I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. 12 I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds.
The rest of the psalm teaches us how it is done.
Do you ever get discouraged over your own sins? They bring you such sorrow and grieve you so much, you can hardly bare it. When that happens, how about Spurgeon’s words? He said, “When my works reproach me, let Yours refresh me. When the works of my hands grieve me, let me look to the works of Your hands for hope and joy.” Or the words of Alexander Maclaren: “Memory supplies the colors with which hope paints her most wonderful pictures.” Let’s remember the Lord.
