The King of Kings

9 Remember the things I have done in the past.  For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. 10  Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.

Isaiah 46:9-10 (NLT)

January, 5-7, 2024, I am excited about the Sankofa Mens Summit that we are planning here in Jackson, MS. Over the next weeks, leading up to the conference, I want to use this devotional time to pray over the men that will be in attendance, for the speakers that will be sharing, and for the planning that is taking place right now. We are believing God is going to bless our endeavor and the outcomes of the time. But I also want you to understand the thinking and impetus behind the meeting.

One of the most asked questions that I get when announcing the summit is “What does Sankofa mean? Why is the name Sankofa?” The use of the word Sankofa for this men’s meeting is very intentional. Here is the description of the word from MasterClass:

“ Sankofa is a principle derived from the Akan people of Ghana that one should remember the past to make positive progress in the future. The Akan tribe of Ghanaian Africans is part of the larger Ashanti (or Asante) group of people from West Africa. The word Sankofa literally means “to retrieve” in the Akan Twi language, but the meaning of Sankofa is more broadly expanded upon in this Akan proverb: “Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi” (translated from the Akan language to mean “it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot”). The power of Sankofa centers around this: to know history and your heritage is to know your current self, the world around you, and how to better both.”

What are we to remember when we look back? Isaiah gives us the primary thing we are to look back and bring into our future. God tells Israel through the prophet Isaiah to remember not just the events of the past, but specifically remember what God had taken them through in their past. God tells them to take a moment and remember how God brought them out of troubles. He encourages them to remember how God fought their battles for them.

But honestly, some past is difficult to remember. Some past has pains that we would rather not remember. There is disappointment in our past. There is sadness in our past. There is heartbreak and betrayal in our past. There are losses in our past. And God asks us to remember our past.

Why?

Because what He wants us to focus on is that the same God that was in our past, has promised to be in future. The same faith we had then, he asks us to remember, so that we can take it to our future. He asks us to reach back into the pain, and bring forward the God that took you through the pain. He asks us to reach back into the trouble, and bring forward the God who delivered us from the trouble. He asks us to reach back and see that the weapon we thought was our end, was destroyed by our God. He wants us to see that while time may change, our God doesn’t.

I think more than at any time in our history, we need Sankofa. We need to walk in our legacy and remember the God of our History.

It is my favorite verse of Lift Every Voice and Sing. I think it’s my favorite because I think it points toward our need for constant remembrance, Sankofa. I pray that as we meet in January as men, we remember the God that the song speaks of. I ask you to pray for our men that we may Sankofa our God.

God of our weary years,

God of our silent tears,

thou who hast brought us thus far on the way,

thou who hast by thy might

led us into the light,

keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee;

lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee;

shadowed beneath thy hand,

may we forever stand,

true to our God, true to our native land.