“Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.” Proverbs 3:3
Over the past few years, I have kept a whiteboard and a dry erase marker at my bedside. Oftentimes, before I would fall asleep, I grabbed that whiteboard and prayed for the names and the things listed on the board. From time to time, I would erase the whole board and start from scratch; writing the names and things that I felt the Lord putting on my heart to pray for. I would pray over that list for days or weeks, adding to it as space allowed, until I got the urge (and felt awake enough) to erase it again and start anew.
As circumstances and seasons have changed this year, my whiteboard has been left behind. It was a little bit inconvenient to pack in my bag for my time spent on the Mercy Ship, and quite frankly, it wasn’t at the top of my packing list as I headed into the adventures that the Lord is leading me in today.
Without my whiteboard at my bedside each night, I have turned to paper and a pen, though my pattern has remained quite the same. I’ll write out my list of people and things one day, and then pray over it for days or weeks adding a few things here and there until the Lord leads me to write out a new list.
Just this week I was in my quiet time with the Lord and searching for a certain passage in Scripture when my Bible fell open to a page marked with this little orange card. I can’t tell you what scripture that card was marking, but what I can tell you is that the little orange card was one of the prayer lists I had written out earlier this year. As I scanned the list I began to realize the beauty of having this card to look back on.
Prayers that I had prayed months ago. Prayers that had been answered. People that God had placed heavily on my heart in that time. Some people that the Lord has carried over from list to list to list, still remaining in my prayers today. Things that the Lord walked me through and that I can now look back on with a new perspective. Names that I needed reminded of; that I need to add to my list today.
Suddenly, I realized that had my whiteboard still remained at my bedside, I would never be holding this list in my hand. And then I wondered… how often is it as though our past prayers have been written on a whiteboard? Whether answered as we had hoped or otherwise, never to be looked back upon nor to be reminded of God’s goodness and God’s faithfulness. Even more so, how often is it as though the details of our days are written on a whiteboard? Once erased, never to be looked back upon to be reminded of the goodness and faithfulness of our God? The sovereignty and the love of our Father?
Brother or sister, can I ask you to take a moment to consider this today?
When is the last time that you looked back on your past prayers?
When is the last time that you looked back on your journey to today?
When is the last time that you thanked God for His faithfulness?
Is it all as though written on a whiteboard and never to be looked back upon?
Or maybe, you’re reading this today and your whiteboard is without a mark.
Can I encourage you to talk to God today? Even more so, can I encourage you to write it out?
Write out your prayers.
God surely doesn’t need you to write your prayers in order for them to be heard, but my prayer for you is that you will be blessed when you come across what you have written today on paper in a few weeks, months or years! That if nothing else, in that moment, you will smile in being reminded of God’s faithfulness. In being reminded that you prayed over those people and those things, and whether answered as you had hoped or else wise, you will know with all certainty that your prayers were received by a God who hears and a God who works all things for your good and for His glory!
I now have a journal dedicated to the writing of my “prayer list” and I plan to look back on the pages of this journal from time to time simply to be reminded of these things. I want to encourage you to do the same, if you are not already doing so.
I have often been told that the greatest testimony for the Lord that we can share with others is the testimony that He has given each of us; you and I. Is this not true for us too? Can our own testimonies not testify to our own hearts? I believe that they can and maybe even more powerfully so! I believe that when we look back on our prayers and on our journeys, we learn more of who God is and who we are to Him.
In God’s perfect timing, I came across Proverbs 3:3 this morning.
"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.” Proverbs 3:3
We are to bind God’s love and God’s faithfulness around our necks, to write them on the tablet of our hearts. Writing our prayers on a card certainly doesn’t equate with wearing God’s love and faithfulness on our necks nor writing it on our hearts, but as we take time to look back on His works and His hand in our lives even as written out on paper, the roots of our understanding of who God is will deepen, as though worn on our necks or even written on our hearts.
With this in mind, write it all out today – not to simply be erased and forgotten, but to be looked back on and reminded.
Our God is love. Our God is good. Our God is faithful.
With so much love,
Your Sister in Christ
