A Scroll of Remembrance

Have you ever had a long conversation with your spouse or friend regarding plans for your future, or your finances, or serious decisions that need to be made? You find that you are discussing many options and each of you are giving your own viewpoints, and you begin to realize that the decisions you are about to make could profoundly affect your future.

John and I had such a conversation on the telephone last night. Two people our age about to join our lives, our families and our futures together have a lot to discuss and work out. Well, let's face it, no matter how long two people have been married, there are always compromises and decisions that need to be made! But I have never before been through this kind of discussion with such an awareness of God's tangible Presence. As we were exchanging our thoughts, ideas, concerns and suggestions, we were coming to the same conclusions in a sense of total unity; and then I heard the Holy Spirit whisper in my ear, "I am listening and I am writing all this on a scroll of remembrance." I mentioned these words to John and told him I knew this was a scripture somewhere in the book of Malachi. "Scroll of remembrance?" he asked. "Yes," I told him, "I sense that the Lord is listening in on our conversation and I believe He wants us to pray through this passage." We both got our bibles out and turned to Malachi 3:16-18: "Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in His presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored His name. "They will be mine, "says El Shaddai, "in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked; between those who serve God and those who do not."

This passage covered us in awe and blessing! How overwhelming it is to embrace the notion that the Creator of the Universe cares so much about each of us and our daily affairs that He listens in on our conversations and writes them on a "scroll of remembrance." And according to what He hears, He makes a distinction between those who serve Him and those who do not!

Was our conversation pleasing to Him? Did our discussion about finances honor Him? I realized we had been speaking to one another about our desire to commit every decision to Him before acting upon it, and to seek Him together for wisdom and understanding in all our plans for the future. Surely that was honoring to our God, and exalting Him to the highest place. Surely He heard our desires to serve Him above ourselves. It was thrilling and overwhelming to think about His "heavenly eavesdropping" on His children, and His compassion and desire to make His presence known in the midst of our discussion.

Yet it was so powerful that it gave me pause to wonder, "How many of my daily conversations would I really want the King of the Universe to hear, and to write on His scroll of remembrance? " Does He always hear talk from my mouth that causes Him to speak of me as His treasured possession? I believe that passage will stick with me in the future: "Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other and the LORD listened and heard."