My dear friend,
I began to write another sketch about my wife, but the Lord forbad me. Nevertheless, with the few that I have already written, I think you can see that I truly do value, honor, and love her. How could I ever deny all that she has meant to me and the great influence that she has had on my life? Thus I find myself in a great straight! God has put it into my heart to sacrifice myself for you. How do I reconcile this paradox? I only have one life to give. If I had two lives to give, I would gladly give them both so that God’s love would be made real to you and to her. It is a great conflict to my soul! … but in truth, I have never actually had a choice in the matter.
For many hundreds of long agonizing days and nights, I felt as if it were a test. How would I chose? I did not understand the reality of the situation. Indeed, it was a great while before I was able to comprehend what it was that God was telling me, and then my eyes were opened so that I was able to see what God was showing to me all along. There has ever only been one door open! This is not because God is limited. All things are possible with God. If He had wanted to use me to show the perfect love of God to her, He would have made it possible at some point in the last 25 years. Yet, despite all my tears, prayers, and supplications to my faithful God and Lord! … it never did happen!
Why?
It is because she will not accept it!
She will gladly accept my carnal love, but she will not accept God’s true and perfect love.
This is why God is sending me out alone to the desolate ends of the Earth to seek a soul unto His own. Yet in my quest for one soul, God will use you to draw many other souls unto His beloved son, Jesus Christ.
Do you think that Jesus died on the cross in a reckless and vain attempt to teach peace to the people of the little nation of Israel? Not so, my friend! The cross was His destination from the foundation of creation itself. It was His passion to pay the penalty for our sin. He did it, because He loves us. He did it, because He loves you. He would do it again 100 billion more times if it were required.
I am going out willingly, following Jesus, because Jesus has taught me what true and perfect love really is. It is to give, and to give all of myself. It is to give all that God has ever given me, and not to take.
“24For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. 25For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? 26For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angles.”
Luke 9:24-26 KJV
These things that I have just explained to you in a mere 550 words, were not understood by this sinful son of Adam in a snap of the fingers. No, it took God many years to teach me these important truths. Neither did I learn them through much study and learning. Verily, I learned them on my knees in countless hours of prayer, ruminating and reflecting on the words of the Bible and asking God to teach me the truth of those words.
God will not move forward one hairsbreadth with His plan in our lives without the prayers of His saints behind it. The reason why you are reading this blog article right now is because there are a company of my brothers and sisters that are praying for me, my ministry, and all those whom I am ministering to (which includes you). There is someone somewhere who does not even know who you are or what your name is that is praying for you! … simply because I asked them to do so, and the Spirit has convicted their heart to obey the commandment of our Lord!
But what is prayer? Is it our means to petition God for those things that we believe that we need or want? Oh no! That is not it at all! Prayer is how we come to apprehend what God’s will is, and it is how He shows us that are minds are not in harmony with His own. When we pray, we learn to recognize those things in our lives and in our minds that are preventing us from following His will. It is in prayer where we are convicted of what is wrong in our lives, and where God leads us to turn and follow after that which is true and righteous.
Had it not been through prayer, I would have never understood any of those things that I just told you. Had it not been through prayer, I would not have known that God does not want me to purchase a boat for this quest; because, there is no such boat that would enable me to complete the journey. It is by prayer that God revealed to me that a boat is not sufficient and that I must build an ark. By prayer He showed me how this ark and all of the materials and components in the ark are to be fashioned.
God, through His infinite wisdom, has provided to me a shelter for my journey. This is the immense power of prayer. Through prayer, God provides shelter to our souls, to our minds, to our bodies, and to our spirits.
He provides shelter to our hearts.
He is the God of all comfort. He provides strength in the time of need.
It can be painful when He convicts us of the sin in our lives, but He will never leave us comfortless. When we read and study the Word of God, it will uncover iniquity in our lives, and it will sting. Thankfully, He is a God of mercy and grace. We have all forgiveness of sin and of iniquity through Jesus Christ, and His shed blood upon the cross. Believe on the risen Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. He is our shelter.
It is through prayer that we have access to that shelter of life and that we recognize His great love for us. Once more, it is through prayer that we learn to love Jesus and we also learn to love those around us with a pure and a perfect love.
Love Always,
Dale 😊
Your comments and questions are welcome, even the critical ones. You can submit comments without specifying an email address (despite the fact that it indicates that an email is required). If you do, I ask that you use a fairly anonymous (benign) username. However, if there is something amiss with your anonymously submitted comment, I will not have any way of telling you what is wrong.
