By: Pastor Jarren Rogers

“We will remember the works of Your hands. We will stop and give you praise. For great is Thy faithfulness.” – Tommy Walker

What is your earliest memory? This is mine:

It was when I was really young. I was playing outside running through the grass. I think I liked the way it felt under my feet. My merriment was quickly cut short when I felt a sharp pain in the bottom of my foot. I cried out and the tears began to flow.

My mom heard me and brought me inside where she quickly discovered a bee’s stinger poking out of the bottom of my foot. She grabbed some tweezers and carefully pulled out the stinger. Using good old-fashioned home remedies that only moms know, she spread a white paste on the bottom of my foot and the painful throbbing subsided.

I don’t know why this is my earliest memory. Maybe it’s because it was a painful experience at an early age. Maybe it’s because my mother’s loving work brought a quick relief to misery.

The truth is, remembering changes us. Our memories shape how we see others and how we see the world. How I remember my mom reacting at that moment has forever changed how I see her.

I think the same is true with God.

Remembering what God has done for us in the past affects how we see Him now. Our remembrance of God’s faithfulness changes our outlook when our situation looks bleak.

This is proven in Scripture. Time and time again God uses something similar to this phrase:

I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God (Leviticus 11:45)

God is constantly reminding the Israelites of all that he had done for them. Why? God wanted to strengthen their faith. Trust isn’t something that comes easily. It is something that is built up over a long period of time. It is built from experiences, from times when people have proven trustworthy to us.

I think that in order to build our trust in God, just like the Israelites were reminded of God’s deliverance time and time again, we have to remind ourselves of all the ways that God has proven faithful in the past.

 Parents: Walk with your kids through all the times that God has been faithful to your family. Show them how remembering what God has done can build their faith.