The Life You Lived

“The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name” (Mal. 3:16, ESV).

I paused and leaned into Holy Spirit before I decided for sure on keeping the name that I picked for this devo. “The Life You Lived.” Does it feel strange to read that in the past tense?

It does feel strange to me, since I am still living my life. However, the day is going to come when it will be past tense for all of us. There will be a reckoning, an answering for the stewarding of our hours here down below. There will be a day that we stand before the Lord of the universe. In that moment, He will have a conversation with each one of us about “The life you lived.”

It will all be laid bare before Him. We will give account. Truly, it is healthy to reflect on this periodically as we journey through this brief life span. Moses recognized this when he prayed, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Ps. 90:12, NIV). Not one of us is eternal on this earth. We will live out this mist of a lifetime in a much more fruitful way if we do so ever mindful of its brevity. May Holy Spirit keep always within sight for us how finite the span of our days is.

I was struck by this thought as I finished going through 1 and 2 Kings recently. God inserted a summary statement about each and every king of Israel and Judah into these books. They either go along the lines of “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done” (2 Kings 21:20, NIV). Or alternately, they sound like this: “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left” (2 Kings 22:2).

One or the other. Written down in ink, for posterity. For all generations to come. And, may I add, for all of eternity to come. Holy Spirit brings these particular individuals to our attention because they were in leadership. Leaders are held to an even higher standard with God. However, we know that God is in a habit of meticulous record keeping on all of us; not just for leaders and kings.

Consider these Scriptures, for example:

“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened… And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done” (Rev. 20:12, ESV).

“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” (Matt. 12: 36, ESV).

We could add so many more here, but these two certainly give a clear idea of what is coming up ahead for each of us. I am so grateful to know that the God to whom we will give account is not angry at us. Jesus took all His wrath on the cross. For those of us whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life, the day of reckoning is not intended to make us afraid. We will be standing in the presence of pure love as He reviews our lives.

However, He does intend these truths to invite us into deep reflection and fervent action. The time is short. Our days are numbered. Each one of them is marked with a number, until we come to the end of them.

At the end of the day, what will Heaven’s annals proclaim about our lives, to remain as the record for all of eternity?                                               

“She did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, not turning to the right or the left.” That’s what I’m longing to hear read out, when my turn comes.

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Why do we humans try so hard to forget about our mortality, when it’s one of THE most important characteristics of our existence?