God Comforts Believers (4)

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" 

(Matthew 5: 4)

In this chapter we will look at another way God comforts his people, and that being his giving to his people recall of the word of God, of past blessings and deliverances, of past mountain top experiences of joy in the Holy Spirit, etc. I confess to you dear reader that I have often been comforted by God in this way. There is a tendency or proneness to forget things, religiously or theologically speaking. After all, there are things that we need to keep always in remembrance, as the people of God, for doing so will help to insure our comfort and enduring faith. So the apostle Peter wrote:

"For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease." (II Peter 1:12-15 nkjv)

The purpose of keeping certain things fresh in our memories regarding our dealings with God and with our consciences is multi-faceted, and "insures" a number of things, and comfort (strength of mind, heart, soul, and spirit) is one of them. I have often been comforted by the memories of past blessings and providential interventions in my life. They strengthen faith to believe that they will continue, i.e. as God has often heard and answered prayer and granted requests in the past, so I have every reason to believe that it will be so in the future. The apostle Paul connected such remembrance not only with receiving comfort, but salvation, for he says: 

"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain." (I Cor. 15: 1-2 kjv)

Wrote the prophet Jonah while in the belly of hell (the great fish that swallowed him):

"When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple." (Jonah 2: 7 kjv)

Surely remembering the Lord included remembering God's own history and biography; but also surely included Jonah's remembrance of past blessings divinely given and times of communion with God. Those remembrances gave him high quality comfort and consolation and strength to endure. Likewise the Psalmist wrote: "I remembered Your judgments of old, O LORD, And have comforted myself." (Psa. 119: 52 nkjv) Here the Psalmist receives comfort as a fruit of spending time musing upon God's past works and dealings with him. Such blessed memories fortify the soul. So the hymn "Precious Memories" says:

1 Precious mem'ries, unseen angels,
Sent from somewhere to my soul;
How they linger, ever near me,
And the sacred past unfold.

Refrain:
Precious mem'ries, how they linger,
How they ever flood my soul;
In the stillness of the midnight,
Precious, sacred scenes unfold.

2 Precious father, loving mother,
Fly across the lonely years;
And old home scenes of my childhood,
In fond memory appear. [Refrain]

3 As I travel on life's pathway,
Know not what the years may hold;
As I ponder, hope grows fonder,

Precious mem'ries flood my soul. [Refrain]

According to this hymn writer, what comes from such precious memories? He calls them "unseen angels." Perhaps they are in some sense, angels being God's instruments to bring things to our minds and to put thoughts into our hearts. (Rev. 17: 17, etc.) We know God does this from many bible passages, and angels are in their mission messengers of God. After all, God does send us messages in this and other ways. In God bringing things to our remembrance he causes "sacred scenes" to "unfold" in our imaginations. These visions comfort us. These appear in "fond memory." As these precious memories are enjoyed, pondered, "hope grows fonder," and we are comforted.

Jeremiah, the "weeping prophet," wrote the following in his Lamentations:

"And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD: Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope." (Lam. 3: 17-21 kjv)

Here we see a case where good things came from the prophet remembering former trials, afflictions, and sins, rather than from remembering times of joy and gladness and times of deliverance. That good was humility and hope, and with hope comes comfort. Reflection, which involves the memory, can be very highly productive for our good. Meditating on the past can be blessed by God for our good and comfort. Said wise king Solomon: "Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established." (Prov. 4: 26 nkjv) That would include pondering the path you have already walked as well as the path you intend to walk in the future. To ponder on the past is to remember it. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," famously coined by philosopher George Santayana in 1905. Pondering our past, both ups and downs, will bring us comfort and fortify us against future mistakes and tragedies.

To show how remembering God's past orderings of our lives, and remembering his word, bring us comfort and strength, I cite the words of David who said "Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You." (Psa. 119: 11 nkjv) Hiding God's word in the heart involves keeping it always in our memories. Doing so works to lessen future transgressions and increase holiness. It is a case where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I encourage the Lord's people to lay up God's word in their hearts, to memorize as much of it as they can, especially those parts that have made the greatest impression upon them. So God said to Moses and the people of God:

"Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes." (Deut. 11: 18 nkjv)

To "lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul" involves remembering God's words. The "frontlets" were the headbands worn around the head and which had scripture written on them. I believe, however, that they signify keeping the word in the "forefront" of our minds, for God wants all his creatures, and especially his chosen people, to write his word upon the hearts and minds. So is the exhortation of God: "Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart." (Prov. 3: 3 nkjv) It is interesting that God tells the people to do what he said he would do. God promised, saying, "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: "I will put my law within them, and I will write it in their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (Jer. 31: 33; Heb. 8: 10; II Cor. 3: 3) Mary, the mother of Jesus, certainly did this. Writes Luke: "But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart." (Luke 2: 19 nkjv) I am sure that she was later comforted by these things that she wrote in her memory.

God will bring scripture and past experiences and lessons to our minds for our good and for our comfort. So Jesus said of the sending of the Holy Spirit:

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (John 14: 26 kjv)

Since we are saved by the Gospel only if we keep in memory that Gospel, we need the Holy Spirit to daily keep us reminded of it and in doing so we will be kept and preserved from falling into despair, or fainting in the way, and will give us comfort and strength to persevere.

Somebody might say -- "doesn't Paul say we should 'forget those things which are behind' and look ahead to the end goal and prize?" Yes he does in Philippians 3: 13-14. But, he does not mean that absolutely, or in every respect. Paul on more than one occasion told of his past conversion experience, and even recorded his sins in persecuting the church. So, he is not going against his own advice. He rather means that one should turn his back on living as he once did when he walked according to the flesh and according to the course of this age. I often am comforted by recalling the hour I first believed and obtained a hope in Christ.