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Let me remember my song in the night;
Let me meditate in my heart.”
Then my spirit made a diligent search.
—Psalm 77:6
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First, I want to express gratitude for your prayers and kind messages. My father-in-law is in hospice care, so we’re still praying for the miraculous. God’s already done a profound work in his life, and we know our Father is faithful to finish what He begins. Through it all, He’s been gracious to us, and we’ve experienced God’s goodness at every turn.
If you listened to the message I shared a couple of weeks ago, you heard me talk a bit about why God invites us to remember (or re-member) through prayer. In case you missed it, I touched on how our memories are made of members, pieces and fragments of our lives. Our imperfect memories profoundly shape us, so God invites us to surrender them to Him, allowing the Spirit to grant us the ability to see, experience, or understand things we missed or misunderstood before.
To re-member is to trust that Christ can indeed unite all things in Himself, including the messy, missing, or traumatic parts of our stories. Jesus told us that in this world we would have trouble, but He also said that we could take heart because He has overcome it all. In Him, every bit of our pain, every moment of disorientation, can become sacred scars.
Response
This week, I want to challenge you to bring remembrance into your prayers. Slowly read Psalm 77 and set aside time for God to guide you through the truth of your past. The Spirit will lead you through those memories of pain—strongholds of disappointment and failure—and dismember their power over you, transforming them into songs of deliverance. God longs to integrate the broken pieces of our lives, but we must let go of our need to control, to explain, to rationalize.
Your way was through the sea,
your path through the great waters;
yet your footprints were unseen.
(Psalm 77:19)
Closing Thoughts
I know I’m asking you to do scary and sacrificial work. But I promise the Spirit will meet you in those tender places. He is gracious, patient, faithful, and He longs for us to know as we are known.
When it comes to prayer, our capacity to hear God now is tied to our courage to re-member what happened then.
Re-membering with you,
Addison
P.S. If you’re new to this community or don’t have the Words with God: Trading Boring Empty Prayer for Real Connection yet, just click here to get your copy. (It’s available via book, eBook, and audiobook . . . and in Spanish!)
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