Memories can be both a blessing and a curse, and this time of year is full of memories. Christmas is so fun with children, and making memories with them is a blast. But then Christmas also brings up memories of those who are no longer with us. At Christmas you find yourself both laughing and crying within seconds. What are we supposed to do with all these emotions? I want to stop here for a minute and say that I am not a mental health professional, and so please, if you need to, seek professional help, do so. There are many good, qualified Christian professionals out there. In this post, I’m going to focus on what the Bible tells us about memories.
Memory and Meditation
God created memory. This is a good thing, or we would all be stuck not knowing who we were talking too, who we were married to, who we raised, or how to make Christmas cookies! So what are we to do with these memories that have been given to us? God tells us to use our memories to remember Him. We aren’t supposed to just remember Him, but meditate on Him, that is, call up and focus on the memories of what He has done for us.
In order to meditate, you have to be able to recall a thought, to think something over. This means that you need to be able to think over a memory. Psalm 48:9 says, Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love. In order to meditate on God’s love, we have to think about memories of how God has shown His love to us, such as how He has blessed us, protected us, comforted us, or shown us grace. When we are meditating, we are choosing to focus on a memory. When we meditate on God, we are actually remembering who He is.
Be Strong and Courageous
In fact, God asks us to meditate on His word day and night because by doing so, it will help us. Read Joshua 1:7-9 below:
Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Even though, this passage refers to the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, we can extend it to mean the complete Bible at this point. Why does God tell Joshua to meditate on God’s word in the middle of the command, “Be strong and courageous”? At the time, Joshua was taking the Israelites into the Promised Land and they would need to fight the people who were inhabiting the land. However, this applies to us today as well. In order for us to stand by our moral principles and Christian lifestyle we will need to “be strong and courageous.” It takes real strength to do the right thing in life. God is telling us, by meditating on His word, by committing to memory, memorizing His word, we can be strong, courageous, encouraged and know God is with us wherever we go.
By meditating on God’s Word, that is, memorizing it, we are using the memory God gave us to remind us of just how much God loves us. It’s not just God’s word that we are supposed to meditate on, but also anything positive. “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things (Philippians 4:8).” I really appreciate being told to think about whatever is lovely. For me, this means, thinking about art, nature, music, and Christmas cookies! Seriously, thinking about what is lovely will differ from person to person, but to each person, it means enjoyment.
Memories can Hurt
Unfortunately, memories can also actually mentally and physically hurt us. Satan uses memories of pain, shame and guilt to keep us in bondage. God asks us to meditate on Him and His word, because He knows that is beneficial for us. When we don’t, when we meditate on our pain, then we are allowing Satan to rule our thoughts. Please allow me to qualify. People who have PTSD or another mental illness due to trauma need to get help. However, along with professional help, it would be good to take God’s advice and focus on whatever is right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy as much as possible.
This is exactly what my mother did. You see, when she was nine years old, her father, who was a policeman, had to work on Christmas Eve. He had to pick up a man who was drunk and very belligerent. He had had a really difficult time getting him to jail. His shift ended and he came home and sat down to rest. While sitting there, her father had a heart attack and died. Mom was really close to her Dad and she was devastated. Christmas was always a bittersweet holiday for her. My sister and I would catch the sadness in Mom’s eyes, but she just acknowledged she was missing her Dad and then go on to make the holiday cheerful and happy. I know she was able to do this because she was a Christian and knew her life, and her father’s was in God’s hands. She chose to focus on the baby Jesus, rather than the loss of her father.
We all have good days and bad. Sometimes it will be easy to focus on God and His word, and other days it will be very difficult. Allow yourself to rest in God’s arms in a bad day. God knows your heart. He knows your struggles and He is holding you and will be right there with you. If you suffer from painful memories, please ask other Believers to pray with you and for you. Please don’t feel like you are alone. Just as God told Joshua that He would be with him wherever he would go, God will go with you wherever you go, even if it is deep in your own thoughts. God is there too.
Whew, that was intense!
This Christmas season, I pray that we can laugh and create joyful memories with our friends, family, and for ourselves. Meditating on God and his son, Jesus, whose birth we celebrate, will help in creating a Christmas memory that will only encourage as we continue to meditate on God and His incredible love for us. We can choose to remember how Jesus humbled Himself to come down to earth as a little baby, show us how to live a perfect life, teach us how much God loves us and then choose to take our sins on His own shoulders as He was crucified on the cross and died for us. We can choose to be thankful and give Him praise as we make Christmas memories centered on His majesty. Praise God for His memory.
Picture credit: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320804.php#1
