Marble Memories

Do certain moments in your life hold a special value in your heart?

Throughout history, from ancient to medieval times, kings, queens, and other noble monarchs held royal treasure houses that guarded all their most precious riches. These elaborate structures were often constructed of marble and other valuable substances to showcase the splendor of their opulent lifestyles, from the past and their present. Only their most trusted guards had access to these secret places where they hid away their most costly artifacts. Sadly, these places are lost in time, standing isolated and collecting dust as they are forgotten through the ages. While we may not bear a title of earthly royalty, as God’s adopted children we have eternal royalty that gives us noble titles of a spiritual nature; because we are sculpted in God’s likeness, our spiritual and emotional treasures mean a great deal to Him.

Our memories are irreplaceable, priceless treasures that happen only once in a lifetime. As much as we might wish otherwise, we cannot travel back in time to revisit the best ones we have. On a similar note, there are other memories we may wish to erase, but by the same token that feat is also impossible. We may try to grasp tightly onto these tokens of time with all we have, but each passing day they continue to fade away into the shadows. No amount of recording events or recounting them to others will ever be able to replicate the actual sensation of experiencing those moments for the very first time, no matter how hard we try.

So what do we do when we’re afraid to forget about the moments that matter the most to us?

We commit them into the Lord’s hands for safekeeping.

I know what you’re probably thinking: If I give these memories up, it will be like saying they never mattered to me in the first place, right?

Not necessarily.

On the contrary, handing over our most valuable memories to God ensures that they will be carefully preserved to a far greater extent than we are capable of doing. So how can we be certain that God understands how much our special memories mean to us, before we’re ready to commit them to His hands?

Well, here are a few reasons why we can rest assured of this fact:

1. He knows how often we wander these hallowed, hollow halls.

Our memories we create through our lives tell the story of who we are, and as such they form a metaphorical museum of everything that has ever influenced us, for better or for worse. Some people are prone to introspection more than others, and can easily find themselves wandering aimlessly through these marble walls of memory until they inadvertently become lost. While it can be a good thing to develop self awareness by revisiting one’s own history, it can easily become an abysmal labyrinth that may be impossible to escape from. Those of us who endlessly search these corridors are looking for clues to understand why certain events transpired the way they did, hoping to discern a formerly undiscovered truth. Since many of our past events were crucial keystone points in our personal development, it can be difficult to leave these halls behind. Because the Lord can read our every thought at any given moment, He undoubtedly understands why these past places are so important to us.

2. His home is in our hearts, so He respects our personal emotions and feelings.

From the moment we accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, we invited His Holy Spirit to come dwell inside us for all eternity. While God is omniscient to begin with, He has another reason why He cares about everything that is important to us – His spiritual palace in our heart is where He resides every day. As the royal King of Kings, He not only exercises authority over our lives, but also deeply understands why these moments in our past mean so much to us, because He created us the way we are for a specific reason. Being the very Maker of our souls allows Him to have an intimate knowledge of what makes us vulnerable, including why we react to certain life events the way we do. Whether our memories are from the distant past, or the more recent present history, God cares about every single thing that takes up place in our hearts. Since He indwells us and gave us our existence, He is filled with compassion towards whatever caused us sorrow, anger, or joy. He regards these feelings as the precious riches He imbued us with when He made us in His divine image.

3. He longs to be the preeminent Muse in all our thoughts.

God is deeply interested in all the thoughts we think, and made a supernatural investment in us when He sent His Son Jesus to Earth to sacrifice His life for us, beginning the process of sanctification at the moment of salvation. We are instructed in His Word to do everything for His glory, no matter what it is concerning our daily lives. All actions, words, and attitudes begin in the same place – our thought life. Each day we have a choice to decide what we want to think about, directing our path for the rest of our waking hours. We can use this time wisely if we make the choice to honor God in our thoughts first, giving Him ultimate control through His Holy Spirit. Alternatively, we can also make the choice to be careless about our thoughts, letting our flesh become the director of our day instead, grieving the Holy Spirit of God Whose presence is always with us. Apart from God, we can do nothing, not even breathe, and He knows that if we assign authority to Him in our thoughts daily, He can help us accomplish great things for His glory.

4. He is aware that the shadows of past sin can shroud us in shame.

We are all born sinners, under the curse of a fallen, broken world. Therefore, we have all made mistakes that we are not proud of, including those that we already confessed to our Savior. When we spend too much time wandering the marble halls of our memories, we can get trapped in dark despair if we linger in a particularly shadowy section. Satan is aware of this too, and is all too delighted to use this to his advantage against us. While we are no longer condemned after accepting the blood of Christ for our sins, we can be tempted to listen to the voice of Satan and condemn ourselves all over again, becoming defeated by something God has already pardoned us for. We try to retrace our steps and wonder where we went wrong, wishing that we could somehow erase the evidence of our failings, but all of this is to no avail, especially when attempting to do so in the flesh. God can deliver us out of the dark hallways of sinful shame and despair if we choose to give all our memories to Him.

5. He knows that fixating on unchangeable facts can spiral us into insanity.

As fragile human beings, it can be all too easy for us to focus on the negative occurrences in our life and completely ignore all the positive aspects that have shaped us. Our museum of memories can be very extensive, and if we’re not careful, we can descend into the lowest levels of depression without stopping to check how far we’ve gone. Whether we like it or not, there are some things that others have done to us that cannot be undone, or couldn’t be changed because the people who did them WOULDN’T be changed. Trying to resolve impossible circumstances is as futile as banging your head against the wall. Satan wants us to be so fixed on what can’t be changed so that we are prone to overlook the change God is attempting to do in our life. If we commit these difficult facts that are set in stone to Him, we can escape the snare of the Devil himself, who seeks to use these circumstances to destroy us.

Here are God’s own Words of timeless truth that prove He can be trusted with our most sacred memories:

Deuteronomy 32:35 ~ “To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.”

2 Chronicles 16:9a ~ “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.”

Psalm 26:2 ~ “Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.”

Psalm 34:18 ~ “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”

Psalm 139:1-2 ~ “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.”

Proverbs 4:23 ~ “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

Proverbs 14:12-13 ~ “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.”

Proverbs 16:1-3 ~ “The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits. Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.”

Jeremiah 17:10 ~ “I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”

Jeremiah 29:11 ~ “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”

Ezekiel 36:26: ~ “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”

Matthew 28:20 ~ “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

Romans 3:4 ~ “God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.”

Romans 5:8 ~ “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 8:1 ~ “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Romans 8:27-28 ~ “And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Romans 10:9-10 ~ “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Romans 12:19 ~ “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

Romans 15:13 ~ “ Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”

1 Corinthians 3:16 ~ “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

2 Corinthians 10:5 ~ “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”

2 Corinthians 11:3 ~ “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

Philippians 3:13 ~ “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,”

Philippians 4:6-7 ~ “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Colossians 3:1-4 “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”

Hebrews 4:15 ~ “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”

James 4:5 ~ “Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?”

1 Peter 5:7 ~ “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”

1 John 2:15-17 ~ “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

1 John 3:1-10 ~ “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”

 1 John 3:20 ~ “For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.”

1 John 4:20 ~ “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”

As you can see, the Lord Himself is more than trustworthy of keeping our most sacred memories safe in His royal treasury.

As our Divine Creator and the Keeper of our very souls, God is more than worthy of being trusted to keep our most treasured memories safe, no matter what circumstances took place in them. We have no need to worry or fret about our story not being told to others on Earth, because God is our Witness, and He sees all AND knows all. It matters not what may have happened to us by the hands of others; God is aware of all the facts. He also places a high value on whatever is near and dear to our hearts – if it is important to us, it is important to HIM too. God is infinite, and has more than enough room to tenderly place our intangible keepsakes in the vaults of His loving care, watching over them with the abundant stores of His compassion. He is never going to forget us, even if others have. The Lord holds us in the palm of His hand, and our existence, along with all that pertains to it, is secure in His divine possession.

– Gloria D. Hopkins