Max Lucado once said: “Create a trophy room in your heart. Each time you experience a victory, place a memory on the shelf. Before you face a challenge, take a quick tour of God’s accomplishments. Look at all the paychecks he has provided, all the blessings he has given, all the prayers he had answered. Imitate the shepherd boy David. Before he fought Goliath, the giant, he remembered how God had helped him kill a lion and a bear (1 Samuel 17:34-36). He faced his future by revisiting the past.”1
I love Max’s advice for several reasons.
First, faith in God is a growth process. Saving faith takes place when we initially put our trust in Jesus, but maturing faith is a living entity that grows stronger as we see how Jesus helps us meet the daily challenges and trials we go through in life. The more memories we can place on our “shelf,” as Max puts it, the more we can draw from past experiences to see how Jesus has seen us through each trial. Having one memory of victory is good but when we stack up multiple memories of God’s accomplishments in our life, this reinforcing pattern becomes the norm rather than the exception. As a result, we begin to expect victories by faith by revisiting the past. Reinforcement is a powerful faith builder and meditating on God’s past accomplishments is a key component in building faith.
Second, by reading the Scriptures daily we see that God is in the victory and deliverance business for His children. In addition to Max’s example of how God delivered David from the lion and the bear, and then Goliath, we see how this is clearly the norm for those believers who put their trust in the Lord. I challenge you read (Hebrews 11) and see how faith in God was the key to victory in the lives of these heroes of the faith. In addition, reading the Word of God and hiding it in our hearts is the key to, not only sinning less (Psalm 119:11), but giving us tangible examples of how trusting God works! Over and over we see how God shares stories of how those saints who exercised faith accomplished great things for the Lord. My friends there is just no substitute for diligently reading the Bible.
And third, Max shares the healthy habit of revisiting the past and using it in a positive way to face the future. Sadly, many people review the negative things from their past and use them as stumbling blocks to success in the future. And that’s why it is so important to spend our time reflecting on the trophy room we create in our hearts filled with God’s accomplishments in our lives. Past memories can either haunt us or help us in facing the future. I for one try to spend as much time as possible reflecting on my past triumphs, with the help of God, through prayer and thanksgiving, and using these memories as fuel to stoke the fires to future victories in Christ.
What we choose to hide in our hearts is crucial to our future walk with the Lord. As Max says when we look at all the paychecks he has provided, all the blessings he has given, all the prayers he had answered, and imitate those biblical characters who fought the good fight of faith, we are bound to love and trust our Savior more and face our future with confidence!
1 Inspirational Quotes by Max Lucado – page 16 (bibleportal.com)