"The Journal Of Our Hearts"

"The Journal Of Our Hearts"

   

    I've heard many believers say it, and I feel it myself - "I wish I had kept a journal of all the times when the Lord obviously revealed His presence and working in my life".

    "I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember Thy wonders of old" (Psalm 77:11).

    Few of us chronicle our experience of the Lord Jesus Christ on paper, or even in our modern devices that make saving information so easy.  When I was younger and possessed of a good memory, I always thought I'd remember the instances of answered prayer, or obvious provision, or gracious protection, or interesting insight, or seeing  Christ work in the lives of others.  I did and do recall some of those blessings, but most have long passed into the recesses of forgetfulness.  I now know better than to think I'll remember everything, and I have a readily available computer in the form of a smartphone always at hand.  Still, I don't keep that journal, and still, I often wish I did.

   On the other hand, maybe we do chronicle our lives, even if we don't directly jot down, type out, or vocally record the experience of God's involved presence in our lives.  The moments of His grace still exist somewhere within us, in their effects, but also perhaps in creating the inner atmosphere that leads us to steps of faith in the present moment.  I may not specifically recall that circumstance in which the Lord acted in such obvious fashion that it seemed I could reach out and touch not only the hem of His garment, but the very beating of His heart.  I do know, however, that such wonder has happened over and over again in nearly forty one years as a believer (and even in days before I knew the Lord).  Such wonder still occurs, and when it does, the thought always comes to mind, "Heavenly Father, You are so good, so generous, so gracious, and so faithful!"  The "so" comes not only from the blessedness of the present moment, but also from the countless times when the Lord has been undeservedly kind to me.  The particulars matter less than the Footsteps our Father traces in our hearts that the winds of time and forgetfulness cannot erase.

   Whether we chronicle our lives or not, God writes the journal of our hearts.  His Spirit pens the grace of the Lord Jesus deeply within us, upon the scroll of our own spirits.  More will be written, in this day and others to come.  Perhaps we will write, type, or record it for posterity's sake.  Perhaps not.  The legacy of the moments will linger nonetheless.  The imprint of the Footsteps will abide.  And the grace we have known will ready our hearts for the grace we know, and will know.  Yes, I wish I had kept a journal.  But even more, I rejoice that the Lord did and does pen the journal of our hearts.

"Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart."

(II Corinthians 3:3)

Weekly Memory Verse

    But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

(Hebrews 2:9)