Day 10 – The Power of Remembering

The Power of Remembering
Psalm 103:1-5

We have all had this experience: you are sitting peacefully on your couch when the urge to get something from your bedroom hits you. So, you jump up and march into your room full of purpose and meaning. However, somewhere between your living room and your room, your thoughts get distracted. Your body keeps going on the original purpose, but your mind has moved on. Suddenly, you find yourself staring into your closet. Your body has reached the intended destination, but your mind is desperately searching for the reason you are standing there.

We have all had this sudden lapse in memory, it can be incredibly frustrating! And one lapse in concentration can completely derail our sense of purpose. We had a mission when we started marching down the hall towards our room, but now we don’t even know what we were doing or why we were doing it. 

This same thing can happen to us spiritually if we are not careful. We can start off with purpose and meaning, only to get distracted along the way. As we continue this fast, it can be easy to let the discomfort of fasting distract our minds from what we are going towards. 

The key to making sure this kind of spiritual drifting does not happen lies in the power of remembering. When we keep our focus on who God is and what He has done, it will fortify our sense of purpose and meaning.

That is why in Psalm 103 King David tells us, “Let all that I am praise the LORD” (v. 1). There is power in praising Him and remembering His goodness; it has a clarifying and stabilizing effect on us. Praising God allows us to keep His character in front of us and His presence around us.

But the Psalm doesn’t stop at just praise; David closes out verse two with this profound statement: “May I never forget the good things He does for me”.  From that declaration, the psalmist launches into a list of the wonderful blessings that are available for all who believe. There is power in remembering who God is and declaring what He has done. As we testify of what He has already done, we simultaneously proclaim what He will do!

If we want to see God do greater things in our lives, we have to remember to always keep God’s praise on our lips and His goodness in our minds!