How Remembering Rejuvenates Us

This week our small but growing community has been focused around “remembering.” What a gift it is! It is part of marking the season of Lent, which my family celebrated growing up. We aren’t Catholic, so some people were confused by this, but it is a season the church has celebrated for many years to help train us to seek God more intimately. Based off of the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness, the concept of Lent is found in Matthew 4:1-11. One of my favorite parts of Lent was, and still is, how we can use this time to make space for God.

Of course, God doesn’t need anyone to make space for Him since He occupies all space and time. But as a little child, abstaining from candy or television for 40 days in order to focus on God more gave me a simple but deep appreciation for how much honor God deserves in our lives. He deserves our time and attention. He deserves our first and our best. He deserves all things since it is from Him all things come.

This psalm, written by a Levite named Asaph tells of the emotional struggles we face when trials come into our lives. I think it aligns well with Lent because Lent is a way to work through struggles with the Lord without letting the struggle  consume us. The psalmist opens up his heart and reveals his pain before the Lord. He doesn’t try to hide it from him. He doesn’t wear a mask. But he also doesn’t wallow in his pain either.

We can learn from Psalm 77 several ways to approach any struggle in a God-honoring way:

1. Let’s bring our hearts to the Lord honestly. When we face trials we can’t pretend that that we aren’t struggling and expect to be healed. God can do anything, but He wants His children to have a relationship with Him. This means we have to share our hurt with Him.

2. We must call to mind God’s goodness and majesty even in the midst of any struggle. The verse that is the pivotal point in this psalm is the one right before this week’s memory verse “I will remember the works of the LORD; yes, I will remember Your wonders of old.”

3. We point back to specific times God provided what we needed. This not only strengthens our faith, but it also encourages others as well. When we can stand firm on what God has done for us we are trusting him. Truly trusting him means not just shallowly saying we do but then living a life of fear. When we do this, we make a statement to the world that Daniel and his companions made (the full story is in Daniel 3), which essentially said, we know God can do whatever he wants to save us, but even if he doesn’t, we won’t bow to this fear and we trust the Lord instead. This is a powerful testament to the Lord and a wonderful way to honor and meditate on him.

So, friends, this week as we memorize Psalm 77:12, let’s keep meditating on God’s mighty deeds!