As I reflect on my life as a believer, I have some pretty discouraging memories of faith! I look back and see times of doubt, times where my tongue was used to slander, times where I hurt people who are dear to me in the faith…sin, sin, sin. Of course, I do see progress as well. It’s not all ugly memories. Yet, sometimes I want to just leave the past in the past and move forward. The Devil wants to use these shameful memories to discourage and condemn me.
But, what does God want me to do with my ugly memories? He doesn’t give me the gift of forgetting.
God had Israel celebrate many feasts and at least two were feasts of remembrance:
- The Passover Feast was a feast to remember God’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt.
- The Feast of Tabernacles was to celebrate God’s provision of shelter for His people in the wilderness.
These feasts were not about Israel; they were about God and what He had done. Generation after generation remembered these events. These feasts proclaim: “remember what God has done.”
I believe that’s what God wants us to do with our memories of faith, both the seemingly good and bad memories. We are to look at the bad memories and thank God for delivering us, forgiving us, and providing for us. He gets the glory for sanctifying us and maturing us to where we are now. We are to look at the good memories and not think about how great our faith is, but how great our God is. He is using the victories and the defeats to both encourage us to strive on and humble us on the journey.
So, don’t let Satan use your memories of failures in your walk of faith to drive you to despair. Instead, may those memories drive you back to the Savior who continues to love you, despite of you.
