The Power of Memories

I was on the bus on my way to school sometime this week when my mind drifted back to last year's WMD cam.. how we experienced the presence of God, how vibrant the worship was and how the people were so passionate and on fire for Him.. and when i was pondering that on the bus, i felt God's presence with me and i felt a sense of expectation rising within my spirit and i started thinking about the power of our memory..

It's a precious gift that God has given us.. now some of you may disagree cos when looking back even in your immediate past, there are just some things u wanna forget.. there are just some things you dun wanna think about.. there are just some things that we all did in the past that we wished we never done and that has gotten us in quite a bit of trouble and chaos.. haha.. but memory is powerful cos when we use it to remember God, to think about what God has done and even focus on that, we're keeping our expectation on God and who He is.. our focus rests on Him and our faith rises up as we engage Him.. it's almost like we're re-living that same experience when He showed Himself to us, when we saw Him working in and through our live and we saw Him faithful in the circumstances that we faced! And that simple memory brings us hope for the future -that God will not leave us nor forake us- and faith for the present, that He can and will bring changes into our lives..

Remembering Him and what He has done is like an act of worship... As how in th Old Testament, generations of saints set up altars and memorial stones to commemorate God and what He has done in their midst and to remember the revelation of who He is. Moses set up an altar called Jehovah Nissi. Abraham set up an altar called Jehovah Jireh. The Israelites took up 12 memorial stones from the bottom of the Jordan River to commemorate their miraculous crossing over... Remembering God is a powerful thing.. it builds our faith, centres our focus on Jesus and even causes us to have such an awareness of His presence at the moment...

Memories are powerful and the devil knows that... that's why he wants to keep us dwelling on the past, our past mistakes, our past sins and failures.. and when we look at that, we get stuck.. looking at our failures wun bring faith for the future.. rather, an overwhelming sense of hopelessnes and submission to satan's unrelenting accusations.. it can keep us trapped... but there's always the power of praise and worship to bring our focus on what God has done, lift our spirits and impart faith in us for breakthrough...

One of the things that i understand with my walk with God is the deception of sin and following worldly desires... Chasing after sinful pleasures is all vanity... and that's what it is when u remember it.. you will know how empty, useless and pointless it was, how much of a waste of time it was.. how the fleeting experience wasn't even real... that's why its called deception.. you get stuck at that sorry state and end up in an endless cycle craving for more to fill the void in your life that only God can fill... But the other thing i learned from my walk with God is that when you experience God in your life, it's so real that even when you remember it, you will be filled with such a sense of God and with faith such that it's almost as if you're re-living His wonders afresh.. and knowing the power of memories will bring us into that dimension and help us enter into that realm of faith and into His Presence...

It says somewhere in the minor prophets (micah i think) that God has a book of Rememberance written when He heard the conversation of those who were talking about Him... i wonder what God was writing in His book of Remeberance.. i wonder if He has more than one.. i wonder what He writes regarding His own secret histories with man.. hmm.. if God had a secret bog, what would he write.. what would He want to remember?? maybe something like this??

"I remeber when _____ worshipped me today so passionately with all his heart. And i just felt so loved by him..."

We do know that Jesus said to His disciples that wherever the gospel was preached, what Mary of Bethany has done in anointing Jesus with her worship would also be remembered...

Does our worship leave as much of an imprint in God's sacred memory as much as His wonders and personal dealings leave with ours??

God bless...