God bless you in the wonderful name of Jesus Christ whose words were remembered by his apostles (Matthew 26:75; Mark 11:21; Luke 24:8; John 12:16).
There is power in remembering the right things. However, far too often, when we are confronted with a new challenge, we often fail to remember God’s faithfulness in the past. Problems often capture our thinking, and we forget that we’ve gone through similar and even worse trouble before. The problems appear so ominous that we momentarily fail to remember all the other difficulties we’ve already faced and overcome with the help of God.
That’s why we need to deliberately take time to remember how faithful God has been to us. Paul encouraged Timothy in II Timothy 1:5 saying, “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also.” Paul was reminding Timothy about something very important! God’s faithfulness was a part of Timothy’s family heritage. His grandmother trusted the Lord — and the Lord had never failed her or let her down. His mother trusted the Lord — and the Lord had never failed her or let her down either. Because Timothy was dealing with great stress and difficulty, Paul took the opportunity to remind him that just as God had never failed his grandmother or his mother, neither would He abandon Timothy in his own difficult hour.
Then Paul put Timothy in remembrance (II Timothy 1:6). “Remembrance” is the Greek word anamimnēskō, a compound of the words ana and mimnēskō. Ana means again or to repeat something, and mimnēskō, means to be reminded of something, such as recalling memories. When these two words are joined, it means to regather or to recollect memories. The little prefix ana carries the idea of replaying these memories over and over again in your mind, the way you would press the rewind button on your video player so you can back up and watch one part of a movie over and over again.
This means there are some memories we should never forget! For instance, we should constantly hit the rewind button in our minds and “replay” the times God has been faithful to us in the past — delivering us. healing us, and rescuing us time and time again. We should replay those scenes in our minds until our remembrance of them are ever-present. We must never forget God’s faithfulness to His Word and how He has delivered us.
Remembering the right things can stir up the gift. Paul reminded us how powerful it is when we take our eyes off our present times of trouble and remember God’s delivering and rescuing power for us in the past. We must never forget what God has already done for us. Those memories will stir us up and encourage us to face our present dilemmas with faith. Just as God has always been faithful to us in the past, He will be faithful to us right now.
So, the next time you feel you’ve hit a mountain too big to climb or a problem too big to overcome, take the time to get alone with the God, hit the rewind button, and ask Him to help you regather and recollect all those past events when He came through for you. As you replay those memories over and over in your mind, your confidence will rise to a new level. You will be able to look your problems right in the face and say, “God’s record with me has always been good. He has been faithful to me in the past, and I know He’ll be faithful to me now as well!”