Nobel Prize winner Han Kang said that the question, “Can the past revive the present, and can the dead revive the living?” was the motif of her writings to date. 

 

The situation in Korea after President Yoon Seok-Yeol declared martial law on December 3rd clearly shows that past experiences are securing the present. This is because the people who have experience and memories of martial law under past dictators are blocking anachronistic attempts to turn the present back to the past. 

 

Our lives are like that, and so is human history. It is not a coincidence. It is God’s providence. 

 

God gives grace to people. Those who acknowledge and are thankful for that grace are those who believe in God. God is a just God who gives sunshine and rain equally to both this land and that land (Matthew 5:45). Those who acknowledge such a God, and are thankful for the fruits of life produced through sunshine and rain as God’s grace, and praise God are the righteous. Those who eat well and live well with the fruits produced by the sunshine and rain, but do not appreciate the grace and do not acknowledge God who gives the grace are the wicked. 

 

 

Remembering is an essential process for acknowledging, thanking, and praising God .  

 

Without remembering God’s grace, we cannot acknowledge God, be thankful for the grace He has given us, and praise His grace and power. To count the graces God has given us in our lives through memory is to acknowledge God. Some people do not even recognize the love, kindness, and help they receive from others. We cannot acknowledge what we do not recognize. How can someone who does not acknowledge be thankful? Such a person does not know grace. Whether we like it or not, we will meet such people in life, and when we meet such people, we feel hurt. 

 

• When something like that happened to David, he was so hurt that he almost committed the sin of harming such a shameless man. Thanks to David’s warriors guarding the wilderness, Nabal was able to harvest abundantly without losing a single sheep. When David, who was living in the wilderness, asked Nabal to show favor to the warriors after the harvest, Nabal did not even acknowledge that he had received favor from David and the warriors and instead insulted him. David was so angry that he and the warriors were going to kill Nabal. The tragedy was prevented by the intervention of the wise woman Abigail, but in the end, Nabal was punished by God and died (1 Samuel 25).

 

The same is true in our relationship with God. God gives grace to all people, but there are many who do not even recognize that grace. How can such people properly acknowledge God? How can a person who does not acknowledge God be thankful for the grace He has given? 

 

Therefore, we must try hard to figure out 'who has given us what grace' and 'whether we acknowledge the one who gave us that grace as someone we are grateful for'. Finding and counting the graces in our memories we have received is recognizing grace as grace and acknowledging God. Only then can we give proper thanks and glory to the God of grace. Recognizing the graces God has given us as grace and giving due thanks and praise to God is as important as life. 

 

• Even though God brought down the ten plagues, brought Pharaoh to his knees, and parted the Red Sea, and made them cross the Red Sea like on a dry ground and delivered them from Pharaoh and his soldiers permanently, the Israelites did not remember what God had done. Instead they constantly grumbled and complained for everything. The Israelites, who did not recognize or appreciate the grace of God's deliverance, could not enter the land of Canaan but fell in the wilderness (Numbers 14:27-30). 

 

• Hebrews 6:4-8 tells us that living a life of remembering, giving thanks, and praising God’s grace is our eternal life. “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.”

 

Remembering God’s grace is not only acknowledging God and giving Him thanks and glory , but also allowing our past experiences of God’s grace to help us in the present .  

 

No matter how much grace we have received from God, if we do not remember that grace, that grace will not be of any benefit to our current lives. We have not been able to live without God’s grace until now, and we will not be able to live without God’s grace in the future. We are like lambs before God. For us who cannot live a single day in peace without grace, remembering the grace that God has poured out on us throughout our lives is like drinking the water of life. God’s grace that is revived through memory makes us hope for God’s grace and gives us faith in God who will give us grace again and again, allowing us to overcome the difficulties that appear in our current lives. When we remember, thank, and praise God’s grace in the past, that grace helps our current lives. 

 

- The apostle Paul and his companions almost died in Asia. Regarding this, he says, “For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9). The apostle Paul does not stop there, but says that God delivered him and his companions from that tribulation, and he expresses his faith and hope that God will deliver them again in the future (2 Corinthians 1:10). The experience of grace that saved him from a tribulation that was like receiving a death sentence gave him the faith and hope that God would deliver him from another tribulation that could come in the future. So the apostle Paul was able to boldly continue to carry out God’s mission.

 

 

True faith is acknowledging that God has given us everything we enjoy in life, giving thanks and praise for His grace

 

God said to the Israelites, who rebelled against Him right before the Promised Land, despite having saved them from Pharaoh the Egyptian emperor through ten plagues and once again saving their lives from Pharaoh and his soldiers by parting the Red Sea, “Why do they not believe in me but despise me?” (Numbers 14:11). True faith in God is to count, be thankful, and praise God’s grace. Faith without remembering, being thankful, and praising God’s grace is nothing more than an empty, soulless sound. 

 

Remembrance is the foundation of true faith, acknowledging that we live by the grace of God and giving thanks and praise to God for that grace. The Israelites, right before the promised land, despised God because of their lack of faith, rebelled, and eventually fell in the wilderness because they did not even try to remember the many, great graces that God had bestowed upon them. Psalm 106:7 says, “Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.” For this reason, God’s Word commands us to remember the signs and wonders that God has done. 

 

• “Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! 2 Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! 3 Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice! 4 Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually! 5 Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered” (Psalm 105:1-5).   

 

The more we remember God’s grace, the stronger our faith and hope become

 

The memory, recognition, gratitude, and praise of the experience of God's grace accumulate to become confidence, and confidence gives boldness, and that boldness enables one to do things that humans cannot do. It strengthens the person. 

 

• As Moses’ servant, Joshua saw God pouring grace on the Israelites like water through Moses. When God said, “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you,” it was like saying, ‘As I gave grace through Moses, so I will give grace through you.’ God reminded Joshua of the grace He had given through Moses in the past, and planted confidence in Him in Joshua, who must have been trembling with fear. And Joshua’s confidence was expressed as boldness, allowing him to go into the Canaan land to conquer without fear ( Joshua 1:5-6).   

 

Those who remember the experience of God’s grace and repay it with gratitude and praise will receive greater grace through their faith and hope, and they will be more grateful for that great grace, praise more, believe more and hope more. The memory of God’s grace brings about greater faith and hope, and greater faith and hope become channels of greater grace. In this way, God’s grace snowballs for those who acknowledge, remember, thank, and praise God’s grace, and their lives become filled with God’s grace. The faith and hope of those who remember God’s grace and live with gratitude and praise cannot help but become more solid.

 

• It is similar to the teaching of Jesus, “For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance. But from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him” (Matthew 13:12). Even if they initially received the same grace, those who are filled with gratitude for it will receive greater grace as their faith and hope in the God of grace become stronger, whereas those who do not realize that what they have received is grace and instead complain or fall into pride and arrogance, thinking that it was because of their own good deeds, will receive no more grace. This is what is meant by “For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” (John 1:16). 

 

 

Conclusion - Always remember

 

Remembering, being thankful, and praising God’s grace is not enough to be done only on Thanksgiving or Christmas, on Sundays, or when something you want happens. We should do it even more on those days, but we should do it every moment of every day. Because, as we have seen, remembering, being thankful, and praising God’s grace is true faith, and that faith and hope are what make our lives roll forward through God’s grace. 

 

Even if you do not remember, be thankful, and praise God’s grace, life will roll on anyhow. However, such a life does not have the God’s help, and there is no grace of God working through faith. It is burdensome, difficult, and dull, like a stone rolling on a desert. On the other hand, a life that remembers, is thankful, and praises God’s grace every moment of every day is like a stone rolling down a snow-covered hill, growing bigger the farther it rolls, and it is not difficult as it rolls downwards.

 

What do you pray every evening? Count the graces God has given you that day, be thankful, and praise God for the graces He has given you. What do you pray every morning? Be thankful for the graces God has given us in our lives up to yesterday, hope for the grace He will give us today, and praise the God of grace. 

 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.” This can be understood as, “Rejoice always because of the grace you have already received; pray without ceasing to seek God’s grace; and give thanks that in all things that God’s grace has abundantly fulfilled.” This is because the little lambs of God could not and will not be able to live without God’s grace even for a single moment, and there is nothing they can accomplish without God’s grace.

 

Remember God’s grace every day, and be thankful and praise Him. This is true faith and the way to allow God’s grace to fill your lives.