We will remember, we will remember
We will remember, the works of Your hands
We will stop and give You praise
For great is Your faithfulness
So goes the chorus of one of my favorite songs, "We will Remember." Such a simple truth and yet so profound. I know that I have the memory of a gnat. I can't remember names. I struggle even with faces! I forget to take my children to birthday parties or to attend school events, even though they are written on my calendar... because I forget to look at my calendar! There is so much that I forget, but when I forget who God is and what He has done, then discouragement and disillusionment and despair and distraction will set in and take over.
Just the other day, my husband and I grew very discouraged over something one of our children was dealing with. Suddenly, our minds were filled with all the worst case scenarios, and we felt defeated and anxious. Note the word, "felt." It was all about feelings rather than Truth. Somehow in all our dire calculations, God had been left utterly out of the equation! And He is the equation! We had forgotten who our Almighty God is, what He has done, and that He is still on the throne and is still in the business of doing "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine..." But we needed to remember!
We all need to stop in the midst of whatever crisis or challenge we are facing and choose to remember who our God is and what He can do and remember that His Holy Spirit dwells within us and can enable us to face whatever life hands us and to do whatever He's called us to do. But it all has to start with a conscious choice to remember and then to ask Him to enable us in the power of the Holy Spirit to act upon the Truth we know rather than the emotions we feel.
During a very difficult time in Martin Luther's life, he was carrying a number of heavy burdens and fighting many difficult battles. Though usually jovial and light hearted, Luther was depressed and anxious and very discouraged. His wife, Katherine, endured this for some time until one day when he returned home, she met him at the door wearing a black mourning dress and veil.
"Who died?" he asked her.
"God, " his wife responded.
"You foolish thing!" said Luther. "Why this foolishness?"
"It is true," she persisted. "God must have died, or Doctor Luther would not be so sorrowful."
Luther got the message, his perspective changed, and the depression lifted.
How often I live as if God has died! How quickly I lose perspective and grow discouraged or fearful or discontent--for I've forgotten that My God, the One who created the far flung galaxies, who sustains the world and causes the earth to turn and the sun to shine, who raises the dead to life, the One who renews and redeems and restores and reinvigorates--My glorious, omnipotent, gracious God is in control of everything and everyone and every moment!
In his old age, John Newton, in one of his last sermons, declared that he was a very old man and his memory was failing him. But two things he always remembered, "How great a sinner I am and how great a Savior Christ is." Amen!
How thankful I am that I don't have to get it all together to remember the greatness of my Savior and the infinite enormity of His resources! I am a helpless, hapless sinner...but he is a great Savior! I am exhausted and overwhelmed...but He never runs out or runs low. As Paul Miller put it: "Jesus opens His arms to His needy children and says, 'Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest' (Matthew 11:28). The criteria for coming to Jesus is weariness. Come overwhelmed with life. Come with your wandering mind. Come messy." Boy, now there's a standard I can meet: overwhelmed, wandering mind, messy. And Jesus bids me "come." Come weary and worn out and weak... but come remembering who He is and what He has done and what He can do.
We will remember, we will remember
We will remember, the works of YOur hands
We will stop and give you praise
For great is Thy faithfulness.
You're our Creator, our life sustainer
Delivered, our comfort, our joy
Throughout the ages You've been our shelter
Our peace in the midst of the storm
With signs and wonders You've shown Your power
With precious blood You showed us Your grace
And we will shout, our God is good
And He is the faithful One
We will remember, we will remember
We will remember the works of Your hands
We will stop and give You praise
For great is Thy faithfulness.
Our Lord never ever forgets us. May we stop forgetting Him. In the midst of the storms or the sunshine of our lives, in the mundane or the messy, in our sinfulness or our strengths, in our busyness or our barrenness, we must choose to remember. He is so worthy, so great and so good and to Him be all the glory forever and ever. Amen.
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