Worship is remembering

Pastor Mark Jeske

The Deists in England and colonial America in the 1700s believed in a God who created the world, but they had no confidence that he was still engaged, that he actually intervened and acted in human history.

Scripture tells the stories of a God intensely interested in everything going on here. Though he dwells in heaven’s resplendent light, his fingerprints are all over the human story as it has unfolded. Read the Word! Hear the stories! “Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced” (1 Chronicles 16:12). Imagine the crash of Jericho’s walls coming down. Listen for Goliath’s grunt as David’s stone crashed into his forehead. See the Israelites cross the Jordan River on dry ground, the waters on the north end piling up as they waited for God’s invisible hand to let the flow resume.

Worship is remembering. Remember how ferocious the power of the angel armies must be as they swiftly and silently slew 185,000 Assyrians besieging Jerusalem. Imagine how good miraculous bread and fish tasted on a Galilean hillside after you had missed several meals. Pretend that you were the parents of a demon-possessed boy who was liberated from his tormentor. Imagine the stunning joy when the early visitors to Jesus’ empty grave were told by angel messengers that he was alive.

Remember what God has done for you personally—prayers answered, gifts given, spirits lifted, sins forgiven. Remember what it cost Jesus to do these things for you as you worship him.