As I study and practice the spiritual disciplines, there is one that is not often found in books or sermon series, but which I am finding of supreme importance:

The spiritual practice of remembering.

It’s all throughout the Bible.

Deuteronomy 8:2 Remember how the Lord your God led you…

Psalm 77:11 I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.

Psalm 105:5 Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced

Isaiah 46:9 Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me.

Luke 22:19 “Do this in remembrance of me.”

Why?

Why does the Bible tell us over and over to remember?

I don’t really think it’s that complicated.

We forget.

We forget what He has done. We forget who He is. We forget His character.

And all day long, we are bombarded with narratives telling us what is good and true and right. Messages telling us what we need to be happy, what success looks like, what kind of life is worth building.

Some estimates suggest we are exposed to thousands of advertising messages every day. That’s thousands of messages shaping our desires and defining the good life for us.

And often, those messages are very different from what God says is good and true and right.

It’s no imaginary thought that we are in a battle for our minds.

Ephesians 6 tells us that we are in a battle- not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.

2 Corinthians 10 also speaks of a battle too. We don’t fight with the weapons of the world, but with spiritual weapons that demolish strongholds as we take thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ.

Romans 12 tells us to not conform to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

So every day, I live in a world with its own version of what is good and true and right. And every day, I am shown thousands of images that reinforce it.

A hotel ad with a sparkling pool, drinks, smiles, and sunshine.

A luxury vehicle tearing across rugged terrain, promising a life of adventure.

A beautiful home with a happy family and everything perfectly in its place.

And I’m not saying any of those things are wrong.

But I am saying they are not ultimate.

And if I’m not paying attention, they can quietly become distractions from what is truly important.

Because if I spend my life chasing bigger, better, nicer, I can completely miss the good and beautiful life Jesus is actually inviting me into.

The life of loving my neighbor—and my enemy.

The life of considering trials pure joy because God is using them to form my character.

The life of humble service, modeled for us by Jesus, who did not come to be served, but to serve.

The shiny things distract us.

Which is why we are called to remember.

Recently I was at a prayer event, and I felt the Lord give me the words: plumb line.

I knew I had heard the term before. I remembered some sermon analogy about building a house, but I wasn’t very familiar with the actual tool. I just knew it had something to do with keeping things straight.

So I looked it up.

A plumb line is essentially a string with a weight attached to the bottom. Builders use it as a reference point to make sure what they are constructing is truly vertical.

Without a fixed reference point, something can look straight and still be leaning.

And I started thinking about how easy it is to do the same thing with our lives.

If we are not consistently returning to the plumb line of Scripture—something outside ourselves that tells us what is true—we can keep building while slowly drifting out of alignment.

Not usually all at once.

One desire.
One comparison.
One assumption.
One little message at a time.

And if we never stop to check what we are building against what is actually true, we can spend years constructing a life that looks perfectly straight to us.

This is why we remember.

Remembering brings us back to the plumb line.

It reminds us of God’s character—who He is—and His track record—what He has done.

It reminds us that the world does not get to define what is good, beautiful, successful, or true.

It reminds us that God was faithful yesterday, which gives us courage to trust Him in today’s uncertainty.

So I keep coming back to the plumb line.

Back to what is true.
Back to who God is.

And from there, I keep building.