Remember What’s Important

As 2024 closed, we focused on the concept of remembering. I hope you were able to keep up with the daily readings! If not, you’ll find them below with a few notes about remembering.

Psalm 105: 7 – 8: He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made, for a thousand generations…

God remembers his promises forever. He has never made a promise He did not intend to keep. He remembers everything He has promised us.

Nehemiah 13:14: Remember me for this, my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services.

At the end of his life, Nehemiah desperately wanted God to remember all his good works instead of his mistakes. He repeatedly prays and asks God to remember his faithful service. Nehemiah could only make those requests because He had lived a faithful life. Without his life of service, what else could God have remembered? We must live a life dedicated to service to God if that is what we want Him to remember about us in the end.

Isaiah 43: 18 – 19: “Remember not the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

The past can be very difficult to overcome. It continually reappears in our minds and drags us down. Yet, God tells us not to dwell on the past because He is making a new thing in us. Only God can turn our wilderness and wastelands into streams.

Jeremiah 15: 15:  Lord, you know; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In your forbearance take me not away; know that for your sake I bear reproach.

Sometimes in this life, we are persecuted and harassed by others because of our stand for the Lord. But take heart – God will remember you. He will not forsake you. And, one day He will enact His vengeance for you.

Revelation 2:5: Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

We aren’t people and sometimes we will make mistakes. If we aren’t careful, we can let a few mistakes cascade into a series of mistakes. Jesus tells us when that happens, we need to remember where we’ve fallen from and who we’ve wandered away from. Remembering what we’ve truly left – salvation, forgiveness, mercy, and the everlasting love of God – should motivate us to return to God and do the works that placed us in His fold. Remembering God to repent of our sins and return to Him.

Isaiah 43:25: I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins AND Jeremiah 31:34: For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

God declares He is the only one who can blot out or erase our transgressions. He promises will not remember our sins. So, while we will relive and remember our mistakes, once we repent and seek God’s forgiveness and obey His laws – God will not remember our sins.

Luke 17:32: Remember Lot’s wife.

It has always fascinated me that, of all the people Jesus calls us to remember, He highlights Lot’s wife. God’s mercy reached out to save Lot and his family, but their deliverance required a complete break from their past. They were commanded to leave behind all their possessions and flee the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah without hesitation. The sole condition for their salvation was not to look back—not to regret leaving the corruption they were escaping. Yet, Lot’s wife disobeyed. She looked back, longing for the world she was leaving behind, and was immediately punished for her choice. Jesus tells us to remember her and learn from her mistake.

Psalm 136: 23: It is he who remembered us in our low estate, for his steadfast love endures forever. Psalm 103: 13 – 14: As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. Psalm 78: 38 – 39: Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.

If you spend time reading Scripture or reflecting on God and His incredible power, it quickly becomes clear just how vast the gap is between humanity and God. We are flawed, prone to mistakes, and often choose ourselves over others and over God. We pursue our own desires rather than His will, and because of this, His wrath is justly kindled against our sins. Yet, as David reminds us repeatedly, God, in His infinite wisdom, chooses to remember our frailty. He knows we are merely human—flesh and bone, made from dust, and lowly in comparison to Him. In this remembrance, God chooses to respond not with immediate judgment but with patience, lovingkindness, compassion, and mercy.

Psalm 77:11: I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.

Because God, in His love and mercy, chooses to remember our humanity and has graciously provided us a path back to Him, we too must remember the Lord. We must remember all He has done for us—the wonders of old that serve as a glimpse of the greater wonders yet to come.