More times than I care to mention, I have assumed one thing, only to find later that my assumption was incorrect. Any course of action, either in a career or in my spiritual life, needs to be BASED ENTIRELY on FACTS not assumptions!

  In believing that a certain event has or will come to a specific and hopefully fulfilling end, my belief must be based on the hard facts and never on an assumption of details. One particular incident in my professional career came to a most upsetting but temporary conclusion, because the facts were not sought after in earnest, rather assumption ruled the day!

  Are you in a situation now, where assumption and fact seem so close together, that the line between them blurs to a point of almost invisible existence?

  The computer information age that we exist within today, it is of utmost importance to have data backups. Whatever form these backups consist of, nonetheless they provide the answer to a substantial need in the area of saving information in the event a system crashes and vital information is lost.

  As a Believer in Christ, having God's WORD written in our heart[mind], we have provided for ourselves a solid and secure form of knowledge backup upon which to refer in times of trials, testing or crisis.

  In the day to day duties of a network computing manager's schedule, a data backup is made of crucial data and stored in a secure place, in the event of a software or equipment failure. One particular incident that I remember with intense regret, is during the Y2K update, upgrades and conversions, a specific server developed what we often refer to as a lapse of memory.

  It is the same identical way in our spiritual life. During a time when God is bringing us into a higher and much deeper level in our walk with HIM, it is of utmost importance for us to remember the past victories and triumphs, and continue in our upgrading to the next level of spiritual maturity through Holy Spirit.

  As to the story I started earlier. In ANY upgrade, ALWAYS MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU HAVE A GOOD BACKUP....ALWAYS!!! I ASSUMED that the current data backup was good, and proceeded with the installation of a software update necessary to prepare this system for Year 2000 compliance, a far greater disappointment awaited me. After having successfully completed over 50 of these software updates to computer servers and several hundred personal computers, I went about the process without refering to the critical rule of due diligence assuring a good backup of the data, which is vital to RESTORATION. This procedure usually took no more that 20-30 minutes, and when followed could save hours if not days of stress and the reconstruction of important data.

  Nevertheless, in our spiritual lives, we often disregard the past accomplishments when facing a TRUTH TEST! Relying upon God totally, refering to those past experiences where HE was the ONLY BACKUP we had. HE is ALWAYS ABLE TO RESTORE US, if only we dutifully and diligently keep HIM as our RELIABLE SOURCE of ASSURANCE!