Recognition and reminders provide encouragement. Recognize what God has done for you and give him thanks. Remind yourself and others how his mighty hand made a way when there seemed to be no way. 

Occasionally, we have such significant experiences of God in our lives that we must mark them somehow. Writing is helpful. When we are there with fingertips on keys or with pens on paper, we record with precision what God did before memory fades or becomes distorted. 

What other practices best help you remember God’s intervention in your life? How has God enlarged your experience of him? 

We are working with a group of pastors this week who yesterday chose walking sticks during an excursion into the woods. Each man found a stick to his liking. Over the next several days, they will carve into those sticks unmistakable reminders of moments when God worked in their lives. They will remember. As they think back, they will also ponder what’s next with greater courage and confidence because they know God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

What would go on your walking stick? What would you carve or write? 

Here is a simple truth: God is more interested in meeting you in particular places and times and in different states of need and requirement than we are in meeting him. He wants to be known and experienced by each of us. 

He wants us to remember how he has been at work in our lives over the full course of our lives. He wants us to see his hand at work in our lives today. 

Before you go to bed tonight, write down how God answered your prayers. Write down how he showed up when you needed him most. Write down how tomorrow will be better because of what he did today. 

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I will record what God says and does in my moments and days.

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Our Father, may we live in readiness to meet you all along the way today. Give us ears to hear your voice. Give us minds shaped by your thoughts. Give us hearts equal the exertion before us. Give us the wisdom to record how your guiding and providing hand directed us. Teach us how to gain courage and confidence when we remember who you are and what you have done. Amen.