Remembering Our Way to Faith

I’ve reached that age. You know…the age where you find yourself entering a room only to wonder what on earth am I doing here? The age where you forget the occasional birthday, or search for 10 minutes to find the phone…the same phone that you’ve been holding to your ear during the entire search. I don’t know if my occasional forgetfulness is a result of my natural blondeness, or a sign of aging, but I do know that it is a source of many amusing stories at our house.
 
A quick digital search of the scriptures shows that the word remember is used over 167 times in the Old Testament, 36 times in the New Testament, and more than 200 times in modern revelation found in the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. With this information, one has to ask, just what is it that the Lord is so concerned about us remembering? And why?
 
The other morning I was reading one of my favorite passages from Alma the Younger (Alma 36) and saw that it started with Alma encouraging his son Helaman to…you guessed it…remember.
“I would that ye should do as I have done, in remembering the captivity of our fathers….”
This plea to remember the captivity of our fathers appears many times in the scriptures. But why? Why would we dwell on the times when our ancestors were the most miserable…the times they struggled the most…when life just didn’t seem to be on their side? Shouldn’t we be more focused on the future? Or perhaps on the here-and-now? After all, we only have the present moment, right?
Luckily for us, Alma explains why we should always remember the captivity of our fathers as he continues: “…for they were in bondage, and none could deliver them except it was the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he surely did deliver them in their afflictions.”
Alma’s charge to remember the captivity of our fathers is intended to help us remember that, though they were in the most dire of circumstances, God did not forget them. And when the timing was perfect, He did deliver them in the perfect place, and in the perfect way for them.
Imagine Moses and the Israelites backed up against the Red Sea, facing what appeared to be certain death, only to watch the seas part as they left their enemies behind. Imagine the woman who suffered with an issue of blood for many years, receiving immediate healing after exercising enough faith to simply touch the robe of Jesus. Imagine the face of a woman trapped in a life of sin and caught in the act of adultery, punishable by death, when she realizes that the Savior of the World has forgiven her and bids her sin no more.
 
God wants us to remember the captivity of our fathers so that we can remember that despite the dire circumstances they found themselves in, God did deliver them, and just as surely, He can deliver us.
In my life, I have experienced emotional bondage that lasted so long that I could not remember a time when I did not feel the shackles digging into my spiritual flesh. There have been heartaches so deep I was convinced there was no balm for my soul. There have been habits so entrenched that I felt doomed to a life of submission to practices that robbed me of joy. In short, I know, in my own way, what it means to be in bondage.
At those times, my study of the scriptures helped me hold onto my faith that this bondage was only temporary, and that despite the evidence to the contrary, God had not forgotten me. So I continued to work…to fight…to hold onto my faith.
Today, I can lift my voice with Alma in testifying that “…I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions and shall be lifted up at the last day.”
Just when I had come to the conclusion that I would have to learn to endure a life of anxiety, God gave me peace. When I feared I would never find the words to speak my truth, God restored my voice. When it seemed I would always be in the bonds of addiction, God blessed me with freedom.
Lest you think all of my problems are gone, let me assure you that there are plenty of prayers whose answers remain a mystery. But as I remember those who have come before me, and their miraculous stories of deliverance, I add them to the collection of stories that have become my own life. I remember that God is good, God is powerful, and God will continue to deliver me at just the right times and in the perfect ways, and I will yet have more stories to add to the Book of Life which is mine.
Why do we remember? We remember so that we can anticipate the hand of God to be revealed in our own lives. We look back so that we can look forward…not with fear, but with faith. In this way, we give ourselves the gift of remembering our way to faith.
 

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