If you and I were to spend time together, I would quickly learn what and who you care about by your words. The Bible says it this way: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak.” Similarly, we learn what’s most important to God by spending time reading His words to us in the Bible.

One thing I’ve learned about the Word of God is the things He repeats are the things that are most important to Him. There’s an instruction that He gives to us over and over throughout the Scriptures, summed up in one simple yet powerful Hebrew word zakhar, which means “to remember.” Sometimes the command is given in the reverse, “do not forget.”

The Command to Remember

When we think of remembering, we think of looking back to something behind us. The Hebrew people understood remembering as a forward-moving practice and rhythm of walking with the Living God. Following their example, when you hit a moment in life and you don’t know what to do, rather than stressing and scrambling to find the way forward, you should take time to look back and remember God’s faithful record in your life. In remembering, you’ll find your way forward.

The Bible is filled with stories where God lovingly admonished His children to remember His faithfulness in the past to find encouragement for the future. He repeated this instruction again and again because He knew we would need to be reminded of it.

The same was true for the Israelites. It took the Lord one night to deliver them out of Egypt, but it took 40 years in the desert to get Egypt out of the Israelites. Their liberation happened in one night, but their maturation slowly developed over 40 years. It’s easy to forget that salvation and sanctification are not the same thing. We’re saved in a moment but our sanctification, or spiritual maturation, happens over the course of our entire lives. And, along the way, just like the Israelites, we’re going to need to remember.

Remembering as Moving Forward

The Bible tells us that after crossing the Red Sea, one of the first places the Israelites come to is a place called Marah, which translated, means bitter. If you know the story, the water there was bitter. In the desert, naturally the people wanted water more than anything else. Moses took a piece of wood, threw it into the water and the bitter water became sweet. The Israelites were able to drink because of this miraculous provision of the Lord.

From there they went to the desert of Elim. In my own travels to Israel years ago, I’ll never forget the day we studied in Elim, because it was 127 degrees outside. Have you ever been so hot that you would say to someone near you, “If you touch me, I’m literally going to kill you?” It was that kind of heat. It was in Elim that the Israelites grumbled and complained to Moses that God had brought them to this desert to basically starve to death. You can almost hear the Lord saying, “Don’t you remember Marah where I provided water for you? Have you already forgotten? I can provide food for you as well, even in 127-degree temperatures.”

I Will Remember You

We know that storytelling is at the heart of Jewish Sabbath. They sat around their campfires remembering and retelling their God-stories. In remembering, they gained courage to keep moving forward. Jewish remembering is a forward-moving thing.

When the Psalmist’s soul was downcast, he remembered. Psalm 42:5-6 says, “Why, are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put Your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me therefore I will remember you.” He zakhar’ed, you might say.

When was the last time you paused to remember? When did you last sit around with your family, your friends or your community retelling stories of God’s faithfulness in your life?

When we read the Bible, we’re invited to have a rich practice of remembering. That remembering, in and of itself, is a spiritual rhythm that quickens our souls. We should all take some time to “forward remember” and write down our God stories. We’ll probably be amazed by how many there actually are.

Kristi McLelland is a professor at Williamson College and serves as a biblical culturalist, regularly taking teams on biblical study trips to Israel. She is the host of the “Pearls with Kristi McLelland” teaching podcast, available on AccessMore.com. McLelland has a Masters in Christian Education from Dallas Theological Seminary and has dedicated her life to teaching people how to study the Bible, with two Bible studies in publication with Lifeway, “The Gospel on the Ground” and “Jesus and Women.”