Write It Down!

And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, and upon their mind I will write them.”  Hebrews 10:15-16

Perhaps you know the phrase, “I know that I know that God ____________.”  These words are used mostly when speaking of an encounter with God when He reveals Himself in an unforgettable way.  We sought Him, He provided an answer, and ‘we know that we know’ that we heard Him correctly.  No one and no thing is able to shake it. That deep knowing is the essence of these words in Hebrews.

The huge experiential difference between the faith of those in the Old Testament and the faith of us who have come after the advent of Jesus is that our faith is personalized by the Holy Spirit.  It was prophesied by Jeremiah: “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.  I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”  Jeremiah 31:31-133

How did someone in the Old Testament come to know God?  He was born into a nation, one conceived by God through Abraham. He then inherited God-stories that were spoken through their forefathers. He began to tell his children about what he’d heard and faith was passed on through written words, through honored traditions, and through the storytelling of the elders.  Faith, though heartfelt and inspirational to the nation of Israel, was still largely impersonal in that most people never heard God’s voice.

That’s not how it was supposed to be.  God’s plan had always been to be intimate with His creation. He walked in the garden with Adam but sin broke that fellowship and Jesus came to restore it by forgiving the sins that caused the breach.  God, from a respectful distance, drew close to us again through Christ.  He granted us intimate access, finally, because God decided to no longer write His law on stones and tablets.  Instead, He wrote His Words on the fabric of our hearts.

You’ve heard the phrase, “If you want something to become a part of you, write it down.”  We are no longer distant worshipers.  We have been written upon by the finger of God.

You wove Your Words into me and where I end and where You begin is a beautiful blur!  Amen