Worship without remembrance and gratitude is not worship at all. The Israelites knew this well and every act of worship began with a remembrance and proclamation of what God had done for the people. Then and only then could the offering be placed before the altar.

Doctrinal creeds were notably absent in ancient Israel, but the calling to mind of God’s past blessings and favours to the nation played a similar role. The proclamation was a narration of the nation’s history — its afflictions, wanderings, misadventures — all interwoven with God’s merciful and faithful love. When God was praised and thanked there was the assumption that the blessings would continue in the present and the future. After all, God was always merciful in the past, so why would God change? Many of the psalms echo this same connection between gratitude and worship. Often the psalmist recounts the many woes that beset him but shifts into a description of God’s past mercies and then ends with praise and thanksgiving. This approach can serve as an antidote or counterbalance to the tendency towards self-centredness in prayer.

It can be easy to be demanding of God as if we were entitled to our requests. When things don’t go our way or we do not receive the expected responses to our requests, bitterness, disillusionment and doubt can well up in minds and hearts. Just taking a careful inventory of God’s kindnesses and graces can be an eye-opening and revelatory experience. People are prone to short memories except when it involves slights and injustices (real or imagined). It is very difficult to be grateful and resentful or selfish at the same time, nor do gratitude and unforgiveness mix well. Brother David Steindl-Rast, OSB, the founder of the web site www.gratefulness.org, insists that gratitude is a spirituality and way of life rather than occasional and spontaneous expressions of thanks for specific things. A fitting Lenten practice might be to make a daily list of at least 10 things for which we are grateful and to express our gratitude to God before entering into our prayer and worship.

Central to Paul’s theology was the conviction that faith was a vibrant and wholehearted response to the Risen Lord. What one believed was secondary to the personal relationship with the Risen Lord. It was all too easy for one to believe all the right things but be spiritually dead. A seamless harmony was essential between the faith of the heart and one’s words and actions. The Word is indeed very near to the believer — closer than the breath or heartbeat — and that is the bond forged between the believer and Jesus through faith.

Remembrance of the kindness of God helps us to navigate our way through a confusing and crazy world lacking in ethical and spiritual road signs. In the story of the temptation or testing of Jesus, the devil tried to derail the mission of Jesus by planting seeds of doubt in Him and showing Him other options. His three tests were designed to convince Jesus that God’s promises and compassionate mercy could not be taken at face value — they had to be proven.

There are many fears that gnaw constantly at human hearts and souls. Foremost is the fear of physical well-being and abandonment, but the lack or absence of love is a close second. Add to this the fear of helplessness and the desire for power and influence, and you have all the ingredients for human sin, failure and misery. Jesus “called on the Lord” in a big way — God alone was the Sustainer, the Lover and the One worthy of worship. God alone and no other. Jesus placed all of His hope and trust in God and was therefore able to sweep aside the blandishments of the devil and to embark on His mission.

We are faced each day with occasions in which it would be all too easy to surrender to fear and make poor choices. On the other hand, we can remember God and what God has done for us and make a reaffirmation of trust and faith. Those who call on the Lord in the face of trials and difficulties will never be let down.