I Will Remember
By Alisha Renee
When I wonder where God is, I pick up a stone. These aren’t stones I have collected with my hands, they are the ones I have stored in my heart. These memorial stones are reminders of the ‘undeniably God’ moments in my life—times when God blew me away with evidence of His presence and power. When I remember these moments, I remember just how real and how good He is. So, please, come sit with me, because I’d love to share some of my ‘undeniably God’ moments with you.
The time when God led me to my lost daughter
It was dark, real dark. I had been leading worship in an outdoor pole barn for our summer mission camp and thought our six-year-old daughter was with Andrew. He thought she was with someone else. When I came to collect her to return home for the evening, she wasn’t with him. It didn’t take long for panic to set in as I darted to check every logical place she could be. There was no sign of Rachel anywhere. Horrendous images flashed through my mind of all the possible dangers our daughter could be in on the 260 acres of bushland. I was hysterical, and I didn’t care who heard me!
But then, piercing my panic, came a whisper—a gentle knowing in my spirit, ‘Check up at the house.’ It was a ridiculous thought. Our house was about 400m away, uphill in the pitch black. A child wouldn’t walk there in the dark. But the sense was strong. I told Andrew to get in the van and check up at the house.
There she was.
Rachel had no idea what all the fuss was about. She said she was bored and knew the way home! (There must be a word for when mums feel angry and relieved - angrelived?) This memorial stone reminds me that my heavenly Father knows all things, and He cares about my distress. God knew where my little girl was, and His compassion reached through my fear to tell me.
The time when God showed me where my lost credit card was.
In the early hours of the morning in Malaysia, I woke up with a sudden sinking feeling that I didn’t know where my credit card was. This mattered because we had a $10 000 limit on the card! I frantically searched but couldn’t find it anywhere, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen it. I hadn’t used it for at least two weeks, and here we were in a foreign country.
As I searched, a thought came to me, ‘Am I not the revealer of mysteries?’ That had to be God. I wasn’t even thinking about Him! I then remembered in the book of Daniel how God revealed the king’s dream and its meaning to Daniel, sparing the lives of him and his friends. This wasn’t exactly a life or death situation, but I figured if God could reveal mysteries then, He could still do it today. So I prayed, asking Him to show me where my lost card was.
If I’m honest, I wasn’t expecting an answer. Still, He gave me one. A strong impression came, ‘Look in the back of Fred.’ Fred was the code name for our backpack that Andrew kept all the team finances in. I reached down the back pocket of Fred—and there it was! God really is the revealer of mysteries!
The time when God surprised me by speaking to me through a Year 8 student
When I was pregnant with our first child, I was crippled with fear. While other women were glowing, I was crying. I was so scared that something was going to happen to our unborn child that would rip her away from our lives. No one knew my fear except my husband and our pastor’s wife.
One morning, in class, out of the blue, a Year 8 boy put up his hand and said, ‘Mrs Woods, I don’t really know why, but I just feel to tell you that your baby is going to be healthy.’
Jaw drop.
How could he have known? He didn’t. But God knew. And He used this sensitive teenager as a messenger from heaven to calm my fear and remind me that He sees, He hears, and He cares.
These are just some of my memorial stones—moments I go back to and ‘hold’ when I need a reminder that God is real and that He cares.
…Now I am deeply discouraged, but I will remember you…
Psalm 42:6 (NLT)
Let’s not forget what He has done. Start collecting stones. Go back to those moments when God was good to you, and pick up a memory. Place it in the garden of your heart so that in times of doubt or discouragement, you can pick up one of these God moments and remember.
PROMPT: Read Joshua 4:4-7. Take some time to reflect on the moments when God answered a prayer, came through for you, led you, or surprised you with His care. Write them down, or paint them on a stone, and share them with someone. Do what you need to do to remember these moments. And if you can’t think of anyone to share these moments with, please share them with me alisha@madetothrive.nz. I’d love to hear them!
PRAYER: Father, You have always been there for me. Sometimes I forget the good things You have done. Remind me. Bring to memory the moments when You have shown Your care, Your presence, and Your power. And in those moments when I feel a little lost or confused, lead me to a moment in my past, so that I will remember just how faithful You are.
Photo by Rebecca Campbell on Unsplash
