By Strahan Coleman
Something profound happens when we remember with God. We collapse the past and future into one another, because remembrance is a kind of prophecy.
Revelation 19:10 puts it this way, “Worship God, because the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” In other words, to speak of (or meditate on) who Christ is and what He’s done is to bring that very same power into our present.
This practice of remembering into the future has been a part of my life for over ten years now as I’ve journeyed through the weary terrain of long-term chronic illness. What I’ve learned is that the past is like a holy seed that when we recall it to God and call on His faithful character finds a life of its own in our now. And what we sow isn’t only a measure of joy, trust, and renewed hope in our own souls but the seeds of God’s miraculous movement in our future.
A kind of “I remember what you’ve done, who you’ve been for me. Now, faithful Lord, do it again!” prayer. Or another way of saying that is, “God, remember my future!”
This is the heart of petition, of the asking, seeking, and knocking that Christ calls us to (Matthew 7:7–8). It’s a refusal to let our present struggle or darkness redefine who God has been to us in the past or who He can be for us tomorrow. Good remembrance doesn’t just think of the past, it feels it, holds it, and carries it in hopeful pregnancy awaiting new birth. By re-experiencing its joy and gratitude, it becomes prophetic; then it lives itself out in us.
But it works the other way too. Because we can call ourselves to God’s memory as well. This is what Hannah is doing in her prayer: “Remember me.” God can’t remember what He hasn’t already known, and He has known Hannah. He made her and has been with her since she was in her mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13).
Hannah’s plea was simply for God to continue in that faithfulness because she longed for a child—for God to free her from her barren suffering. In his kindness, God heard her and healed her.
Whatever your ache today, your darkness or need, trust God to remember you. Remind Him of it, and in His timing and His way, He will do the same for you.
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