Memory
by Gemma Gardner
Truly, the Lord has given mankind an amazing gift with the ability to remember things. With our memories, we can recall places we’ve been to, people we’ve met, and even their voices, and this helps us recognise them when we meet them again. From earliest childhood, we’re taught to memorise multiplication tables and recite them, and we store huge amounts of information in our memories, which can be tapped into any time we need it.
When I became a Christian, I was given the above Bible verse on a parchment bookmark. I’ve long since lost the bookmark, but I remember the verse!
I’ve recently been away on holiday with my husband, and we went to Norfolk, where we used to live, so we could visit family. On one day, we wanted to go to Norwich. We had arranged to visit a friend for lunch, and were hoping to fit in a later visit to another friend the same day. However, we both discovered that we hadn’t stored her phone number on our mobile phones. It was on our phone at home, but that was no help to us.
I had a feeling that I might have the number stored in my memory, as I knew it was similar to the old home phone number we once had in Norwich. So, we prayed to the Lord that He would show us. On the day before we were to go to Norwich, I remembered the number, phoned it, and was overjoyed when our friend answered and said that she’d be free to see us the following afternoon.
Jesus said to His disciples “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26). The Holy Spirit reminded the Gospel writers of things Jesus had said to them. Today, the Holy Spirit brings to our minds verses of Scripture to help us in time of need, and to guide us in our decisions. The Bible is readily available to us in the west, in many different forms. But the Holy Spirit can only remind us of God’s Word if we memorise it and take it into our hearts. There may come a day when the written Scriptures aren’t so freely available to us, so let’s treasure God’s Word in our hearts now!
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You that You’ve given us Your written Word. Please help us to treasure it and hide it in our hearts, so we won’t sin against You. And please would You help us to not only be hearers of Your Word, but those who do what it says. We ask this for Your glory and in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Gemma Gardner lives in Norfolk with her husband, Dean, who until recently worked at Ellel Grange. They are both part of the Associate Ministry team which Gemma joined after completing the Modular school. Gemma has experienced the Lord`s healing and restoration over many years and longs to see Him healing other broken people. Gemma loves listening to music, cooking, knitting and crochet as well as outdoor exercise. She enjoys playing guitar and singing worship songs.
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