Building a Memorial

By Suzane Avadiar | @suzaneavadiar

Endings fascinate me - when I read a book or watch a movie, the opening line or scene is equally important to me as the ending. In real life, I am just as intrigued. I often look back and reflect the endings of various seasons - even the tough ones because to me, endings evoke hope; it’s a prelude to something new. It’s the cycle of life and that is fascinating. Whenever something comes to an end, I usually become retrospective, nostalgic, and at times even melancholic.

Now that the first quarter of the year is over, I’m marvelling at how fast time is speeding by. I’m feeling the need to hit pause – to everything.

Do you ever feel that way?

This year has already been filled with so many intimate encounters with God that I want to stop to take it all in and simply remember. I want to make memorial stones.

I’ve decided to do this at the end of every quarter this year – so that I am conscientiously building grateful monuments of God-moments to mark my journey throughout the year.

In the book of Joshua, the Lord tells him to choose 12 men, one from each tribe of the Israelites, and then instruct them to: “Take for yourselves twelve stones from here, out of the midst of the Jordan, from the place where the priests' feet stood firm. You shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you lodge tonight” (Joshua 4:3).

God wanted these stones to be a memorial to the children of Israel forever. Later Joshua also “set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant stood” (Joshua 4:9). Joshua was also building a memorial stone to remember the exact place where God caused the waters of the Jordan to stop before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord.

Why? Very simply, to remember God’s goodness that enabled the Israelites to cross the Jordan.

I believe these memorial stones are so crucial to our Christian walk; a memorial stone keeps us in a place of remembrance and gratitude.

Joshua 4:3 tells us that it is important to set up your memorial stone IN the place where God leads you to - away from where you once were and at a place where the sins and shame of your past have been “rolled away”.

We must stop, reflect and build our memorial in that place in our life where He gives us rest. This will be our point of faith because we have seen and experienced His faithfulness in the past and we believe for mightier moves of God for our future.

So it is here, at this point in time that I want to build a memorial to remember all the blessings of the year thus far - because I saw the face of God in each of them. I even want to remember all the struggles so I don’t forget that God taught me how to navigate through the tough terrains and overcome them.

I want to remember how He led me to where I am now. I want to remember the hard times so I can feel how God used them to strengthen me. I want to remember but I will let it all go so my eyes are fixed forward and my hands are unclenched, free to be filled again with new blessings, and opportunities.

I want to remember but not stay rooted in my remembrance so that my feet are forging forward, towards a new place and into a new season. I want to remember how far I walked and trace the path that God walked with me – because He did.

I’m sure He did with you too.

If you reflect and remember, you will marvel at the journey you took. In hindsight, even though the road was paved with pebbles and struggles, you will be glad you walked that road because any journey with Jesus leads to transformation.

So today, I encourage you to do as I did. Pause. Ponder. You will see how much you have already been transformed – in just these few months. Look back and see if you can trace the hand of God in your experiences.

Where is He leading you? What is He saying? Did He coax you to walk another way than the one you intended? Did that change something?

Ponder from that place where God taught you faith in every circumstance before He led you to a place of rest and from that place where you encountered His Presence. 

In that very place, where you were restored, build your memorial stone and let the gravity of gratitude keep you anchored in His goodness.

Now, whenever you face a challenge, you can say with even more conviction than before that “my God will never leave nor forsake me” because your memorial stones of His goodness stands tall and proud. Now, you can step into the promising days ahead engulfed in that magnificent memory.

Suzane Avadiar is a writer, blogger and avid traveller from Malaysia. Over the last 18 years, she has written extensively for various publications in the global marketplace. Writing is not only her passion but also her instrument of worship. 

Suzane has a deep desire to reveal the Father’s heart through her writings so that every reader cultivates a deeper intimacy with Jesus and steps into their God-given identity. She believes Intimacy strengthens Identity! 

Suzane also writes devotions on social media for her church, Destiny C3 Subang. She recently completed her first book, Sent To Journey – Devotions for the Traveller, and is pursuing publishing opportunities. Contact Suzane through her website at www.suzaneavadiar.com or on her Facebook page.

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Remembering God

I don't know about you but there are times when my faith walk has been a little dry. I don't want it to be, but I have had times, sometimes seasons, where I felt spiritually dry and in those times I find myself losing my awe and wonder towards God. If you have been there, you know that not only can it be a frustrating time but also a time when your faith can really start to wane and become lukewarm. Your relationship with Christ becomes nothing more than going through the motions and if we are not careful, those dry seasons become more frequent, eventually leading to a disconnection from God. 

Image credit: armyofcompassion.com

I recently found myself in the early stages of one of the dry seasons. I had been doing so much travel for work (which I love, by the way) that I found myself giving up my time with God in the mornings so I could catch a couple of hours of extra sleep. The days were long and intense that by the time I got back to my hotel, all I wanted was a meal and a coffee and a non-fiction novel to zone out (preferably Christian romance but that's just me.) I started to feel restlessness stirring but in my tired state, I didn't connect the dots enough to know that I needed some time with God to refresh. It was mid trip in Orlando that I was introduced to an exercise during my work training that not only helped me reconnect, but it bought back my awe and wonder.


One morning we were given a sheet of paper that had the letter of each alphabet listed with three lines under it and we were asked to list down all the characteristics of God against the alphabetical letter. Who is God? How do we define His character? His heart? We were told we had three minutes and we had to write the characteristics of God and who He was to us as quickly as possible. Once we had written them down, we all stood for combined worship and during worship we were asked to call out the names and characteristics in alphabetical order. It was slow to start, but then everyone got into it:


Awesome.
Advocate.
Beautiful.
Beloved.
Counselor.
Courage.
Champion.
Deliverer.
Defender.
Everlasting.
Everything.
Freedom. 
First.
Guide. 
Heartbeat.


The list went on and on. As we stood there, about 25 of us in total, reading out the characteristics of God as we saw and felt them, tears streamed down my face. As I listened to people around me sharing how they saw God, and as I called out some of my own words, my heart beat wildly in my chest because I reminded of who He is. The words spoken out were a glimpse of the One who made me and loves me. I was reminded that He is everything and that He is more than enough, something I had unfortunately lost sight of for a little while because I had been so focused on myself. As we stood and fixed our eyes on the Cross, I was reminded that it is about Him and only Him. It reminded me that He is my beloved. My advocate. My freedom.


We are often encouraged to remember the good things that God has done, but how often do we stop and remember who God actually is? How often do we stop and just sit in awe and wonder at who He is, not what He has done? It reminded me of all the things that He was and how much He loved me how much He did, and continues to do for me. It reminded me that the heart of God is one that leans towards me and the character of God is one of such integrity and righteousness and faithfulness that He couldn't possibly let me down, no matter how much the enemy tried to convince me otherwise. Most importantly it reminded me to shift my focus back to where is should be; on Jesus. 

Since that day, my worship and my time with God has shifted and I am focusing more on Him. On the days when I am off to a slow start, I recite some of those words and remind myself that He who was Awesome and Faithful and Loving on that January morning in Orlando is still just as faithful an d awesome and loving. On the days when my heart is a little heavy and my mind is roaming, I make myself go back to the heart of worship and reflect on the awesomeness and wonder of God. So if you are struggling to get going today, can I encourage you to spend some time writing down all the characteristics of God and reading them out aloud to yourself, because we all need a little reminder sometimes.

Leila (Lays) Halawe is a Sydney based coffee loving nonfiction writer and blogger. She has published a short devotional, Love By Devotion, and shares her views on life and faith via her blog page Looking In. You can connect with her via Facebook at Leila Halawe Author and via Twitter at Leila Halawe.