The Importance of Remembering - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2025

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing today.
Deuteronomy 15:15

The Importance of Remembering
"Remember the Alamo!" is a well-known saying in the United States which originated after a famous battle at the Alamo Mission in 1836, when Texas was seceding from Mexico. It became a battle cry for American soldiers in subsequent wars. It graphically shows the importance remembrance has in the psyche of men and nations.

This is also true when it comes to spiritual things—perhaps even more so, when we consider the emphasis which the Bible attaches to this very thing. For example the Book of Deuteronomy uses the word remember fourteen times. The people, who had been slaves in Egypt, were about to inherit Canaan. Moses repeats or rehearses the Law before them so that they would not forget it when they came into the land. "Repetition is the mother of learning," is a quaint saying, but nevertheless true—we need to hear it again and again, lest we forget. The point here is not cognitive memory—some of us who are aging find it harder to remember things—but this is about spiritual memory.

The apostle Peter stresses this in his second epistle—his last words before martyrdom. "I now write to you by way of reminder." This is a recurring theme in the epistle; Peter, like Moses, wanted to make sure that after his departure the saints would still remember what they had been taught (2 Pet. 1:12, 13, 15; 3:1, 8). Paul wrote Timothy shortly before his martyrdom, saying, "Remember Jesus Christ raised from among the dead" (2 Tim. 2:8 jnd); essentially saying, "Timothy, don't be afraid of what man can do to you. Remember, Jesus was raised from the dead and we will be raised too." This is the Christian's battle cry.

Brian Reynolds