The Writing's On The Wall

I spent ages this afternoon at work redoing some wall displays.  I do find a bit of staple-gunning quite therapeutic...

 

However, today I had a marvellous brain-wave and I'm not sure why it has never occurred earlier.  Instead of stapling everything to the backing paper - key information, titles etc., I put the backing paper up and then simply wrote onto it.  No faffing about printing titles to go on the display.  No extra waste of paper.  No waste of time.

 

My wall suddenly transformed itself into a giant (pink) 'whiteboard'. 

 

It made the job so much faster.

 

In the book of Daniel in the Bible, he describes writing on the wall.  Except it's not his writing, and it's not a display at work.  It is God's hand writing a warning to the King at the time, Belshazzar.

 

The message is that Belshazzar has been 'weighed' and has been found to be wanting.  He doesn't measure up.

 

If God were to 'weigh' us, too, we could expect a similar message: none of us 'measure up' on His scales.  But the good news is that we don't have to.  If we trust in Jesus, when God 'weighs' us, He weighs Jesus instead.

"But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."

 

[Romans 3:21-26 NIV]

 

We have all been found wanting.  There is no one righteous, all fall short.  But through the grace of God poured out for us in Jesus, we find ourselves measuring up.

 

For us, the writing on the wall is a reminder that whilst, by our own merits we are absolutely lacking, through Christ, we are enough.  We measure up.

 

 

 

Beyond Your Wildest Dreams

I would say that I have a pretty wild and vivid imagination. I write stories and have little difficulty creating and imagining a wide range of different situations and scenarios. I find it easy and enjoyable to conjure up new characters.

I find it easy to dream big when it comes to writing.

However, the Bible says that there is one whose imagination far surpasses mine.

"God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!"

[Ephesians 3:20 MSG]

And in the NIV version, this verse tells us that God can do "immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine." His ideas and plans are so far beyond our own that we cannot even comprehend them.

In Isaiah, God declares,

“'My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. 'And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.'"

[Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT]

Even when I stretch my imagination as far as possible, even when I dream the biggest dreams I can think of, God's ideas still outstrip mine.

By miles.

Writing and Creating

I love writing. 

 

Stories, articles, blogs, essays, poems.  It doesn't really matter what I'm writing.  I enjoy all of it.

 

I never feel more alive than when I am writing.  It feels as though I am doing what I was created to do and I feel satisfied in the very depths of my being.

 

I have been working this evening on a story I'm writing and I've been really interested in the way that I think as I write.  I know what I want to say and I play around with the words until I am happy with them.  I feel confident and creative and I enjoy both the process of writing and the finished piece.

 

I love the feeling of creating new faces and places,  of describing a storyline unfolding and unfurling.  And I love how the characters seem to come alive in my hands.

 

But when it comes to my own life, I often forget that I have the same creative power.  I have the ability to change the way I see myself or what I believe about myself through my words.  I have the power to create new situations or scenarios for myself.  I have the power to alter how I see myself and how I value myself.  I have the power to decide what or who I will believe about myself. 

 

I have the power to create or destroy, to build up, or to tear down.   

 

Proverbs says,

"Words kill, words give life; they're either poison or fruit - you choose."

[Proverbs 18:21 MSG]

 

So often I don't choose.  I forget that I have this creative power over my own life and, especially, over my own thoughts.  I feel as though I drift along through life, as a passive tourist, rather than as an active participant.

 

But Paul writes about the need for us to be active in constructing our identity and our sense of self and making sure that what we believe about ourselves measures up with what God says about us:

"The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

 

[2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV]

 

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.

 

It is with God's word that we demolish the arguments and lies we believe about ourselves: I am not worthless, I am not abandoned, I am not forgotten or forsaken, I am forgiven, I am loved, I am chosen, I am blessed, I am delighted in.

 

And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

 

If I only let myself believe the things that God says about me, I would have a deep sense of peace and security about who I am.

 

But we have to choose.  We have to be active in writing and creating our identity.  In the same way that a writer has to be active for the characters to live and for the story to unfold.

 

 

 

 

 

Short-Term Memory and Cups of Tea

I have an awful short-term memory. 

When it comes to jobs I need to do, unless I write it down on something that I can't lose (usually my hand), I will immediately forget whatever it was.  There is not even a trace of the thought or an inkling in my mind.

This is most annoying for other people when they have asked me to do something and I completely forget.  I don't even remember until they remind me.  It would be annoying for me, too, but I never even remember that I have forgotten something ...

However, this isn't always bad news: it is a long-standing joke in my family that almost every time I make myself a cup of tea, I forget that I have made it.  Even if it is right next to me, if I am not looking directly at it, it is quite literally a case of "out of sight, out of mind."  Just as I start to think I really fancy a cup of tea, I turn around to be reminded that I have already made one!

I think I sometimes have a similar attitude with God.  I forget the little things that He has done for me - out of sight, out of mind - and I need to remind myself regularly.

I realised this when I came across an old journal the other day.  It was full of things that I was praying about and working through at the time, things that have now been resolved.  But until I found that book, I had completely forgotten that God had answered and resolved those prayers.

It was really special to read back over that journal and see the ways in which God has answered those prayers, even in the last few months. 

That's why, for me, it's so important to write things down - I don't want to forget what He has done, so that I don't forget what He is capable of.

I love this passage in the Psalms which reminds us to remind ourselves of what God has done -

"Once again I'll go over what God has done,

lay out on the table the ancient wonders;

I'll ponder all the things you've accomplished,

and give a long, loving look at your acts."

[Psalm 77:11-12 MSG]

Whilst I may have an awful short-term memory, God never forgets the promise and the covenant that He made with us:

           "He remembers, remembers his Covenant—

           for a thousand generations he's been as good as his word."

 

           [Psalm 105:7 MSG]

 

Let's remember to regularly remind ourselves and each other of what God has done (and continues to do), for us.

And if you ever want me to do something for you, write it down.