Reflection and Remembrance

So why do we reflect and remember God’s goodness to us in seasons past?

We reflect and remember because when we do, it moves us to respond to our world with hope rather than fear. The simple definition of hope in my life, when I know I'm in a hopeful place, is that I'm walking around expecting good things to happen. I know God is good. I have confidence in knowing that He's good to me. Even though I am broken, He has a good plan for my life. The broken places in me, He's redeeming; the places of dust, He's turning into beauty; the places of brokenness, He's mending and healing; the places of stupidity, He's making wise.

Remembering and reflecting on (thoughtfully savoring!) transformation that has happened in my life gives me hope that God is taking me from glory to glory because that's what the Word says, and that's what I'm experiencing. Even in setbacks, even in moments of discouragement, I know that God is working all things for good for those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). We live out and remember those experiences, and it gives us a sense of hopefulness. When we look back and see that God came through and paid the bills all those times, it gives us hope that the bills will be paid in the seasons to come. Remembrance fills our hearts with hope and an expectation for what is good in seasons to come, especially when my present moment is hard. Remembrance reminds us there is a light at the end of your present tunnel, even when it can’t actually be seen yet.

In Lamentations 3:21 it says, “Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope." The context of Lamentations is that all the prophecies that Jeremiah spoke concerning the judgment of Israel have now come to pass. He's walking among the ruins of Jerusalem, burned to the ground by the invading Babylonians. Yet, in the midst of these ashes, he says, "I call to mind, and therefore I have hope because of the Lord's great love.” Though they were consumed and reduced to ashes, Jeremiah chose to remember the times that God delivered them in seasons past. We must similarly practice building up our hope through remembrance and reflection, even in present times of loss that seem to deny the reality that God is good. It is in the seasons God seems least good, we must hold fast to the practice of remembrance and reflection, so as to recall continually to mind His loving faithfulness.

-Hazen Stevens