Although we need to be saved from eternal separation from God only once, Christ continues His saving work in us for the rest of our lives. “(Sanctification)”
Can you think of a few potential disasters from which Christ saved you since your initial experience of salvation?
“Maybe He protected me from greater harm during my bike accident. I suppose He helped me stand firm in my refusal to get hooked on soap operas, even when my friend would occasionally watch at my house. Then He helped facilitate/expedite her move across the country.”
“2/6/14 – (Within six months of answering this the first time, He protected me through the removal of my brain tumor, which was, thankfully, benign)”
Write Isaiah 40:1
“‘Comfort, comfort My people, says your God.’”
We must never cease believing God cares about those in physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual prisons.
What impact was slavery having on the Israelites? [They were] “suffering”
What did God hear? “Their cries”
…but acknowledging the slavery is a crucial starting place toward authentic freedom.
What had Jesus just been through according to Luke 4:1-13?
“Fasting in the desert and temptation from Satan himself.”
Second Corinthians 3:17 will become a vital truth to us. It tells us that ‘where the spirit of the Lord is, there is “freedom.”’
List all the ministries God anointed his glorious Ambassador to fulfill.
“Preach the good news; bind the brokenhearted; proclaim freedom and release from darkness; proclaim favor and future vengeance; comfort mourners; provide beauty for ashes, gladness for mourning, and praise for despair; transform people into strong, righteous people who can rebuild and repair ancient ruins.”
At this point in your relationship with God, which of the following statements best describes you? “I have surrendered to God full access to my heart.”
What do you think of when you think of Christians who remain captive to some area of bondage?
“I think of post-Civil War slaves who stayed on the plantations and worked for next to nothing, or went into sharecropping and tenant farming with tyrannical landowners.”
Dearest Rachel –
It’s interesting, the things that God may have prevented in your life before allowing what ultimately happened to happen; it wasn’t a small number compared to the things most people I know go through. A couple of auto accidents, a tumor on the brain (not a brain tumor as such, but still…), and you’re right, He did see you through. That last, in particular, ought to serve as a reminder that we got ten more years together that we might have had otherwise. You might have gone blind, or (as rare a situation as it may have been) died on the operating table, but you didn’t. So I need to remind myself of this when I bemoan the fact that you’re gone when we expected you to make it to eighty or even ninety years of age.
And even when I do feel your loss, I need to remember that He cares about that sense of hurt. He lost people dear to Him in His human form – although in fairness, He could see to the other side in a way that I can’t, nor can anyone else on this side of the veil. You know, of course, but it isn’t as if you could come back and tell me about it. For all I know, you’re too busy exploring and enjoying your new life; it wouldn’t occur to you to even try – and that’s assuming it would even be possible.
Right now, you must be experiencing that total freedom we never could in our lifetimes, try though we might. We may do our level best to try to make a heaven on earth, but without any real grasp of what the real, original place is like, how could we possibly come up with a passable copy? And how could it ever expect to satisfy us the way the real heaven could? Even the effort and toil that would go into creating this would-be replica would be a lifetime’s work, a slavery to an impossible ideal. It may be true that leaving the world a better place is something to aspire to, a noble cause greater than ourselves, but to try to do so in our own power is a fool’s errand. Best to, as the saying goes, “let go, and let God” take care of that.
And with that being said, honey, keep an eye on me, and wish me luck. I’m going to need it.
Letters to Rachel 