I Will Remember

In a powerful scene from the movie The Lion King, Mufasa tells his son Simba: “Remember who you are. You are my son, and the one true king. Remember who you are.” The dead king’s ghost is compelling his only son and heir of the kingdom to regain the throne Simba had fearfully abandoned. What was true for Simba is true for believers, the forgotten habit of the Christian life, is to live in remembrance that we are children of the King. 

When the flood waters receded and Noah’s family stepped on to dry land, God set a rainbow in the sky as a reminder that the earth would not be consumed in watery judgement again. In the Exodus, before the final plague struck Egypt, the Israelites were told to memorialize the Passover meal. In His final meal with the disciples before His death, Jesus instituted the last supper with the words “Do this in remembrance of me…” (Luke 22:19) 

Remembering is not reminiscing, which is to dwell on a sweet or sad moment, or indulging in nostalgia that makes you long for the past. Rather, the meaning of the Hebrew word “to remember” is to memorialize. This is an active call to participate in past realities by bringing them into present day life. 

Every day for a believer should be a day to remember who we are in Christ, who it is we worship, and the unspeakable inheritance that awaits us. No matter what our life circumstances are, we must remember to make decisions based on past promises of God that hold future fulfilment. It could be times when we face temptation or compromise, have to deal with loss or prosperity, or even when we feel lonely and abandoned.

Friends, we are a forgetful people. This is a condition of our fallen state. We need to fight this spiritual amnesia with an urgent commitment to remember God’s Word so our wills can be realigned with His.