Remembering All the Lord Has Done for You
I used to be so freaked out by the Old Testament.
I didn’t understand it, God seemed confusing, and it was mostly just kind of “what is really going on here?“
But something amazing happened when I read through the whole Bible last year: it all came together. The thread of Jesus united the Old and the New and it made a lot more sense - not perfect sense, because I’m still growing, but a heck of a lot more. And it has helped me to grow in seeing the beautiful practices from the Old Testament that we can confidently carry into the new covenant and use ourselves.
The Israelites were no strangers to questioning whether God would provide for them. Pick just about any page you want in the Old Testament and there’s a decent chance that somebody’s going to be questioning God's provision somewhere on those two pages. But God proves himself again and again, showing His trustworthiness and providing for them in impossible situations.
But, like us, the Israelites had notoriously short memories. The manna that fell in the morning was forgotten in the afternoon and the grumbling and questioning returned.
That’s why there are several places in the Old Testament that God urges his people to set up memorials to what he has done for them - not because He needs the glory, but because they need the reminder. One of my favorites in Joshua 4 when God has the Israelites take 12 stones from the Jordan River, which he had just parted for them to cross, and set them up near their encampment.
These 12 stones were not just a reminder for the people that experienced the miracle but for all the generations that would come after– an enduring memorial of the faithfulness of God.
I absolutely love this image and it inspires so much of what we do here at PSR. I think of all of our products as little memory stones - things that remind us of the reality that it’s so easy to lose track of.
But I think there is also something very beautiful and important about recording and memorializing our own stories of God being abundantly faithful to us. These stories are a part of our testimony and can serve as our own “memory stones” that we share not only to encourage ourselves in the faithfulness of God, but to build up the faith of others.
That’s why I created My Memory Stones: A Journal of Your Personal Stories of God's Faithfulness that we launched this week. Available as both a physical book and a digital download in our shop, this journal is your place to chronicle the faithfulness of God in your own life so that you can tell others, but almost most importantly so that you can remind yourself. In times of doubt, hardship, and heartache you can go back to your own special memory stones and see the ways that God has already been faithful to you, thus building up your faith that he will continue to do so.
Click or tap the button below to get yours.
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