Remember

Remember

Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. 

Isaiah 46:9 (ESV)

I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions, because my philosophy is: If you want to change, then change. You don’t need a special day to start. But this year I decided to focus on three simple things. One of them was to pray more.

In the first chapter of Fervent, by Priscilla Shirer, she describes her grandmother’s prayer journal. Inspired to begin my own, I dug out a leftover spiral notebook and wrote specific names and categories at the top of each page, including myself and my family members. Along the left side I write the date, and then I write a prayer on the right side. I started doing this on January 1st and now, just two months later, I can already look back and see that God has answered specific prayers. When someone asks me to pray for them I used to say, “Of course,” and sometimes forget. Now I have a place to record that prayer, and remember.

Lord God, help us to remember others in our prayers and as we pray, to remember the truths in your Word.

God knows our thoughts, and hears every prayer, even the ones uttered in complete desperation and incomplete sentences. He knows what we need before we even ask. So why do we need to tell Him? Prayer is less about informing God, and more about arming ourselves. Priscilla Shirer says, “In prayer you gain your strength – the power to gird yourself with armor that extinguishes every weapon your enemy wields. It’s how you tap into the power of heaven and watch it reverberate in your experiences.”

Deliberate and strategic prayer helps us remember. We remember those who are counting on us to come alongside and join them in prayer. We remember the truth of God’s Word and His promises. We remember that the God who created the world wants to know us, and wants to know what’s on our hearts. We remember we aren’t fighting our battles alone, and that our God has the power to redeem any situation.