Finally, I was able to exit out of the program before my whole book was gobbled up. I used my backup copy to fill in the deleted places but those first few terrifying seconds caused my heart to quicken and my mind to scream out, “No!”
As soon as I got the manuscript fixed, I thought of what it would be like to stand before God, as an unrepentant human being not able to get the days back—the days spent living without serving Him—the days not surrendered to Him—to watch the scenes of life flash by while knowing there was nothing—absolutely nothing—that could be done to get them back.
For those who have denied Jesus with every day of their unsurrendered lives, what a terrifying time that will be. To know that all your yesterdays have flipped by, irretrievable and gone forever, and now you stand before a Holy God who made a way for you by giving His own Son and yet you still refused Him. Oh, how much more terrifying than losing a book!
Yes, to lose a book I’ve worked on for two years would be a terrible thing for me. But I would get over it. I could write another if given the time. It would not be the most horrible thing that could happen.
But if the days of my life, like those words, disappeared and I stood before God without excuse, unrepentant until the end, that would be the horror of all horrors. I would know I was getting ready to suffer and be destroyed in hell and I would not be able to get one day back to repent. My every hope would be gone.
And as Jesus asked in Mark 8:36: “For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world but lose his own soul?”
So, if you’re reading this and you have not surrendered your life to the Lord of Lords, it’s time you bowed your knees and your heart to the one who died for you instead of letting your life disappear, day by day, never to be retrieved.
Make sure you have a back-up plan. Don’t let the manuscript of your life be deleted without having a copy in the cloud.
Matthew 6:19-21 (KJV)19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
de·lete
dəˈlēt/
verb
past tense: deleted; past participle: deleted