Documenting God’s Triumphs

Daily Reading: Exodus 17, Psalm 67, Acts 23, Proverbs 8

The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”

So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.”

Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner. He said, “Because hands were lifted up against the throne of the Lord, the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.”

Exodus 17:8-16

In Exodus 16 we explored the temptation human beings face to quickly forget the blessings of God and turn back towards self-reliance. Today, in Chapter 17 we see God give Moses instructions on how to mitigate this as much as possible.

The Lord had just delivered a mighty victory for the Israelites over the Amalekites.

However, the army would not have realized what happened on the top of that hill. They were in the chaos of battle, and had no way of knowing that it was directly by the hand of God that their triumph was secured.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it…”

Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner.

Good advice for all of us to this very day.

God has shown up so many times in my life. Some of the biggest ones I have written about in this blog. I have done what God told Moses to do and captured the incredible works of God in writing so that I would not forget and could share the glory of God with others.

So many other times, I have marveled at the goodness of God in private, gave him glory in my heart, but did nothing to capture the moment.

When it comes to these, I am hard pressed to remember the details. 

I struggled to keep them front of mind.

There is power in capturing God’s work in our life so that we never forget his hand at work in our lives.

There is extreme value in not allowing ourselves to quickly forget and let the miraculous works of God fade into the background amidst the day to day chaos of life.

One of the reasons I love writing daily is that it gives me that opportunity to capture what is happening in real time. It gives me something to look back on from time to time.

Nothing makes me smile more than stumbling across an old post that speaks to me and reminds me of God showing up in my life, 6 years prior.

Whether it is daily, weekly, or on some other rhythm, capturing God’s glory is worth the time.

He is worthy of our praise and remembrance.

Daily Reflection & Dialogue

What would it look like for you to form a writing rhythm capturing God’s work in your life? It could be a journal, a blog, simply listing three things you are thankful for once a day, or anything else you feel God calling you to!