Not another coronavirus post, yeah I decided I’d leave those posts to those who are wiser and more well informed than me. I’ve never known so many people to have medical knowledge, and political and economical foresight in all my life. I must have missed that train, but anyway, what this has made evident for me, yet again, is my children’s faith and trust in God and his promises. This brings a lovely, calm atmosphere to our home, which is lovely in a time that our culture seems to thrive on chaos and panic!
Moving on.
Quite often, with my blog, I will get feedback about how people love the way I share how God uses everyday occurrences to speak to me, and I have to say, so do I. I love that God speaks to me in the everyday and that I get to, in turn, share it with you guys and then God also gets to speak through that as well, how cool?!
God can get very creative when he is trying to get our attention and that is nothing new. We see plenty of examples in the Bible: we have Jonah in the whale, Moses at the burning bush, Balaam and the donkey, and the list goes on. So it comes as no surprise really that God will use all sorts of things to speak to us today, and he doesn’t just want to talk to us about the big stuff, but normal day to day stuff too.
And the inspo for today’s blog came from stationery no less! Yup, God can use even stationery, lol.
Hang in there, it will all make perfect sense.
So, Wednesday morning my morning coffee had obviously kicked in well and I took a wee notion to give my desk a spring clean after cleaning the desktop and putting my work bestie to shame (because she is too busy doing actual work to clean her desk).
I thought I would tackle the top drawer which I knew had a gazillion loose paperclips and staples and rubber bands, and whatever other stationery misfit and rejects couldn’t find a tidy home on the desktop. As I started to gather all the paper clips into a new container, I stretched my hand into the back of the drawer to pull all the loose bits forward and, to my delight, found a surprise little box I didn’t know was there. Opening up the box, I realised it was a stamper and, because I’m five, I instantly pulled a piece of paper over and stamped the page.
It said, this account is now overdue. I thought to myself, well that is a pretty wick stamp to find. I’m not sure what I really expected to find, it very obviously belonged to one of the finance team, but still something a little bit more upbeat. As I went to slip it back in its box, I noticed that it actually pulled apart to reveal two other stamps. Again, I stamped the second one, it said paid, and the third I think was invoice received or something along those lines. I thought, much better, and packed it away. As I went to scrumple up the post-it, the one I had used for the stamps, it caught my attention.
The good and the bad and there I felt God press on my heart, isn’t that the devils lies, and my truth?!
There it was, right in front of me, the two comparisons of what God says and what the enemy tells us and the lie in which many, including me, bow under, that our account is overdue, that we still have to pay for our past transgressions, that we are still in debt and what God is saying is it’s paid in full.
I know my story, I know the areas of my life where the enemy tries to muscle in and remind me of past mistakes, to lure me into a pit of shame and guilt or regret. And I know there are times that I need the reminder that it’s already been paid for. Perhaps Wednesday was one of these times, or perhaps it was for one of you guys reading this that needed the reminder. Whether it’s been something you have never been able to lay before the cross, or it’s one of those things that you lay down at Jesus’ feet, and then keep going back to collect. Can I remind you… your account is not overdue but it’s paid in FULL, and that price was Jesus on the cross.
someone said to me one time, if someone bought you a birthday present you wouldn’t take it back to the shop and try to pay for it, would you?
Stop trying to pay a debt that your Saviour has already paid. It’s stamped PAID, by the blood of Christ.
“Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.”
Ephesians 1:7-10 MSG
