Fall Calls Us To Remember

There is something beautiful and exciting about fall. We feel a crispness in the air, we see color swirling all around us and we can sense the changes that God causes to happen all around us.

There’s just something about the change of seasons.

But even as we’re looking forward to the autumn that is coming, God also encourages us to look backwards. Remember the former days, we are told in Hebrews 10:32, look back to the afflictions you’ve gone through with the Lord by your side. Our afflictions definitely don’t look like what the early church went through, but we have our own stories to tell of what God has done for us.

But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. Hebrews 10:32-33

No one really wants to remember the trials and afflictions we’ve gone through - they tend to bring back those feelings and those memories that were so painful in the moment. But we’re told here in Scripture that those days of trouble remind us of what we’ve been brought through and the people we’ve touched along the way.

We never know who is watching us along our trail of life, learning from our choices and responses as we go. Someone may be taking note of how we’ve trusted in the Lord in our difficulties, and they’ll remember that when they’re in their own spiritual battles. What better way to remember days past than in praise to God for how He can use those moments to encourage someone else?

As we celebrate the first day of fall today, I pray that we will spend just as much time looking back as we do looking forward. We may not enjoy reliving the difficult times, but it will be a joy to see how God has grown us and changed us for the better, even to the point of touching other people’s lives through them.

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