The Great Reminder
reminder [ri-mahyn-der] noun 1. a person or thing that serves to remind. 1
A Faithful God
One pleasant morning on my patience-reinforcing drive to work this week down Northwest Highway in Dallas, TX, I was listening to a wonderfully convicting sermon on generosity. The pastor encouraged us to look up Luke 16:1-13 later after the service. A diligent pastor will reinforce their message with verses from throughout the scripture, but often there will be some passages which would also serve to reinforce, but are too lengthy to quote and elaborate on for time’s sake. So upon JP’s encouragement, and being unable to write it down and opting out of leaving a voice memo or asking Siri to make a note, I found myself praying to God asking him to remind me to look up this passage when I had a moment at school that day. “…In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.”
Later on in the morning, when I had a moment to sit down, pull out my phone and was probably debated between practicing my scripture verses or looking at Facebook, “Look up Luke 16” popped into my mind. I honestly and innocently asked God to remind me to look up something in the Bible once I had a free moment at work and simply put, he did.
Now, this is not the first time in my life I have asked God to remind me of something. Often, it is not even something “directly related to him” for lack of better words, but something simple like, “email Ms. Thompson about such and such.” In fact, in all of the times I have asked God to remind me of something that needs to get done, even secular or morally neutral things, I cannot recall a single time he has failed to remind me of such a thing.
Our God is the Great Reminder, and this is scripturally founded. God not only reminds us of his scriptures through his Holy Spirit, but also desires to walk deeply intimately with us in our lives and will remind us of even the most simple things in our pursuit to “commit our ways to the Lord” and “trust in him that he will act” (Psalm 37:5).
I Get by with a Little Bit of Help from my Friend
So where does God’s word remind us that he is our Great Reminder, the One who desires to remind? If you were to set yourself towards memorizing scripture, one of the first verses you could memorize for God to bring to your memory at some timely point, is the powerful words of Jesus on this exact idea.
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14:26)
Jesus then goes on to say, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27). Jesus as God in human form had the Holy Spirit (John 1:32; Matthew 3:16; Luke 3:22). We are promised the same peace that Christ experienced in his life, the Holy Spirit, as well as One who helps us by bringing to our memory everything that Jesus has told us. This not only keeps us from sin, but keeps us close to God. God desires we write his word on our heart (Psalm 119:11) that we might grow in our intimacy with him (John 17:3) and to know of what’s right so we do not sin (James 4:17).
Some Favorites of the Holy Spirit
As you grow to discipline yourself in memorizing God’s word, he will frequently remind you of verses at appropriate times in your life to protect you from sin or leading others to sin. It can be something common, such as with me as a man: an attractive woman walks by that I may in my flesh desire to lust after, and the Holy Spirit will bring Matthew 5:28 to memory. Or maybe I’m not loving my wife Jessica well, and I will remember of how Christ loved the church, I also am to sacrificially love my wife (Ephesians 5:25). Perhaps a fellow Christian is speaking Godly wisdom, and the Holy Spirit will wonderfully dance between the both of us, encouraging my brother to speak truths of God, while whispering to me in my heart the addresses of these truths in his scriptures. The same holds true when discerning what is worldly or ungodly wisdom from others as well. What verses the Holy Spirit will bring to your mind will depend on what you choose, or better yet what he leads you, to memorize.
What’s interesting is that one of the most common verses the Holy Spirit brings to my mind is James 4:17. “If any of you knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” Often the Holy Spirit brings this to mind in what the world may consider to be the trivial situations, that would at best be only a “minor misstep,” but would never the less would affect our relationship with the Lord. God desires us to never make even the smallest of blunders, for he desires simply to be not only our God, but our Father, Brother, and Best Friend, all of which he demonstrated for us on the cross through his Son Jesus Christ.
Me Need More Cookies
Whether you are a seasoned veteran, with a wellspring of verses waiting to erupt from the geyser of your heart, one who passionately loves God yet is not quite there on the verse memorization train, or even one who is just becoming curious towards the wonderful mysteries of God and simply wants to find out more about him and if he’s real, you can deepen your faith and intimacy with God by inviting him into every aspect of your life. As you do this, you will learn to trust God more, which is perhaps the greatest lesson in all scripture (Proverbs 3:5-6).
For lack of better words, as you learn to trust God more and invite him into more things, part of you may want to pray to him about the trivial, not necessarily Biblical things, while another part of you may figure that you must only bother the Maker of the Universe with only the most important of things, or at least those you can figure are directly related to some command he has given you in his scriptures. I can assure you that God wants to walk with you, listen to you and allow you to get to know him in every way. Intimacy with God is a continuous process as with are called to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). It’s OK; you can pray to God about the little things.
Furthermore, God encourages us repeatedly that whatever we say, do, eat or drink is all to be for him and to him and his glory (1st Cor 10:31; Col 3:17, 3:23). (I know I include a dozen or more links to scriptures in my blogs, but seriously, click on that last link for those last three because they are super powerful.)
In conclusion, I wouldn’t say put God to the test and delete your calendar and reminders app on your phone, but remember that God is not just the God of the Universe, but one who is your personal God, who died for your sins, loves partnering with his kids (that’s you) and desires to walk with you every step of the way and if need be, remind you to take out the garbage when you get home so that you might love your wife well and keep the house he’s blessed you with from being stinky.
Heavenly Father, thank you for your deep desire to be intimate with us, that is so deep, you desire to be our best friend and God for all eternity so you died for us on the cross. Help us to be willing to reach out to you to remind us of our day-to-day needs and also of your deep love for us. We love you Sir, to you be all the glory, and it’s in Jesus’ name by the power of the Holy Spirit we pray, amen.
- “Reminder.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/reminder?s=t.