I sat in the doctor's office staring at the scan results. Stage 4 cancer. The words hung in the air like a sentence.

My mind went to all the wrong places first. Fear. Questions. What-ifs.

But then something shifted. I started remembering.

I remembered the day God called me to Peru. How impossible it seemed. How He provided anyway.

I remembered the times we had no money for groceries and checks showed up in the mail from people we had never met.

I remembered the surgeries before this one. The healings. The narrow escapes. The times God showed up when I thought He would not.

And something changed in that doctor's office. Not the diagnosis. But me.

Remembering did not make the cancer disappear. But it gave me strength to face it.

Why We Forget to Remember

Here is what I have learned after 50+ years in ministry: we forget to look back.

We get so focused on the crisis in front of us that we lose sight of the faithfulness behind us.

We see the giant. We forget the stones God gave us to defeat the last one.

We see the Red Sea. We forget the plagues that freed us from Egypt.

We see the mountain. We forget the valleys God already walked us through.

It is human nature. We are wired to focus on threats. To fixate on problems. To magnify the present crisis.

But God knows this about us. That is why He keeps telling us to remember.

Not as a nice spiritual exercise. But as a weapon against fear.

What God Told Israel

Deuteronomy 8:2 "And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no."

God did not tell Israel to forget the wilderness. He told them to remember it.

Remember the way I led you. Remember how I provided. Remember how I never left you.

Why?

Because they were about to face new battles. New giants. New impossibilities.

And God knew they would need more than good intentions to face what was coming. They would need memory.

Memory of His faithfulness. Memory of His provision. Memory of His presence.

Remembering was not about nostalgia. It was about confidence.

When you remember what God did, you can trust Him with what He is about to do.

The Stones of Remembrance

After Israel crossed the Jordan River, God told Joshua to do something strange.

Joshua 4:6-7 "That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever."

God told them to stack stones. To build a memorial. To create a physical reminder of what He had done.

Not because God needed the reminder. Because they did.

Because thirty years later when their kids asked, "Why are these stones here?" they could say, "Let me tell you what God did."

And when the next crisis came, when the next battle loomed, when the next impossibility stared them down, they could walk past those stones and remember:

God did it before. He will do it again.

My Own Stones

I have my own stones.

They are not literal. But they are real.

Twenty years in Peru. That is a stone. God called. God provided. God sustained.

Surviving Stage 4 cancer. That is another stone. The odds were against me. God was not.

Walking through COVID on top of cancer treatments. Another stone. Doctors were amazed I made it. I was not. I remembered.

Every time I face something new, something hard, something that feels too big, I go back to my stones.

I remember the impossible things God already did. And I trust Him with the impossible thing in front of me.

That is not denial. That is faith built on memory.

Remembering Is Warfare

Here is what the enemy does not want you to do: remember.

He wants you to forget every time God came through. Every time God provided. Every time God healed. Every time God made a way.

Why?

Because if you remember, you will not panic. You will not quit. You will not lose hope.

Remembering robs fear of its power.

When the giant shouts, you remember the last giant God helped you defeat.

When the sea blocks your path, you remember the last sea God parted.

When the cancer comes back, you remember the last time God brought you through.

 "You are not behind. You are not being graded. You are being held."

That is the truth. But you forget it when you stop remembering.

Psalm 103:2 "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits."

Do not forget. Remember. On purpose. With intention.

Because the next battle is coming. And you will need the memory of this one to face it.

Build Your Own Memorial

So here is my challenge to you.

Stop and remember. Right now. What has God done?

Where did He provide when you had nothing?

Where did He heal when doctors said He could not?

Where did He make a way when there was no way?

Write it down. Say it out loud. Tell someone.

Build your memorial. Stack your stones.

Not so you can live in the past. But so you can face the future.

When the next crisis comes, and it will, you will need more than wishful thinking. You will need memory.

Memory of His faithfulness. Memory of His presence. Memory of His power.

And when fear tries to convince you that this time is different, that this time God will not show up, you can point to your stones and say:

He did it before. He will do it again.

I am still here. Still standing. Still trusting. Not because I am strong. But because I remember.

I remember every time God showed up when I thought He would not.

I remember every provision that came at the last second.

I remember every door He opened that I thought was closed forever.

And those memories do not just make me grateful. They make me confident.

Confident that the God who was faithful then is still faithful now.

If you are facing something hard today, something that feels too big, stop and remember. Look back before you look ahead.

Remember what God did. And let that memory carry you into what He is about to do.

God's faithfulness is not just a nice story from the past. It is your strength for the future.

If you want to go deeper into resting in God's unchanging love and faithfulness, I wrote about it here: The Big Leap of Faith: Believing God Loves You Exactly as You Are.

And if you want to hear more stories of God's faithfulness through real-life battles, check out the Followed by Mercy podcast where we talk about the hard stuff with a lot of grace and zero pressure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it hard to remember God's faithfulness when I'm in a crisis?

Fear is loud. It demands your attention. It magnifies the problem and shrinks your memory. That is why you have to remember on purpose. Write down what God has done. Talk about it. Build your memorial before the crisis comes so you have something to look back at when fear tries to steal your peace.

What if I can't think of a time when God came through for me?

Start small. Remember the breath in your lungs. The fact that you woke up today. The provision you have right now. God's faithfulness is not just the big miracles. It is every single day He sustains you. Once you start looking, you will see His hand everywhere.

How does remembering help me with future challenges?

Remembering builds confidence. When you see a pattern of God's faithfulness in your past, you trust Him more with your future. It is not about pretending the crisis is not real. It is about facing it with the knowledge that God has never left you before, and He will not start now.