Looking back on your life journey, which season or moment do you most hope God will show you ‘behind the scenes’?
“Perhaps the answer to ‘Why me? Why this?’ on various health/accident issues, but I think I’d most like to know about many little moments – brief encounters with people – what became of people I’ve tried to help or people I’ve annoyed with my driving?”
In your own words, what did the angel say to Daniel in 10:12?
“Don’t be afraid, God has heard you, and I have His answer.”
Search Daniel 10:7-19 and record every description of Daniel‘s posture:
“‘fell… face to the ground’ (9), ‘on hands and knees’ (10), ‘stood up’ (11), ‘bowed with face toward the ground’ (15)”
✩ Christ didn’t set us free just for freedom’s sake. He sets us free so we can get out there and do what He’s called us to do.
I want to be a person to whom God reveals Himself. I want to be a person of vision. I think you do, too, and I think you have your own ideas of who you want to be when the study is over. Use this space to express it.
“I want to want those things and to hunger for more Bible study, I want to want my house to be presentable enough to get busy working on it, I want to enjoy praying, I want to love, godly things above worldly things.”
Fill in the following blanks from Daniel 10:12. ‘Do not be “afraid” Daniel. Since the first day that you “set your mind” to gain “understanding” and to “humble yourself” before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.’
How about you? Describe the role fear has played in your life.
“It keeps me from speaking boldly for the Lord (Share Jesus without fear) in many situations with potentially unsaved people.”
Will we truly make up our minds? Will we ‘set [our] minds on things above, not on earthly things’ (Colossians 3:2)? Or will we remain double minded and half hearted and spend our God-given tenure on planet Earth making no discernible difference?
Daniel didn’t sit back and wait for understanding. He sought it with all his might. Read Proverbs 2:3-5 aloud if possible. What do these verses tell you about pursuit?
“Pursuit of insight and understanding results in understanding the fear of the Lord and finding the knowledge of God.”
We can’t ignore it; we have to deal with it. Our minds are pre-set on pride. Daniel ‘set [his] mind… to humble [himself] before [his] God’ (Daniel 10:12). Every day, Beloved, we’ve got to wake up, drop to our knees, and push the reset button on our pride-prone minds, and program them for humility. God wants to trust us. Can He?
Dearest Rachel –
As I’ve said before, I’ve no idea how time works (or even if it does) in the great beyond. It’s possible that, like with all of humanity before you, you’re still ‘asleep,’ waiting for the trumpet to blow to wake you all up for the resurrection. On the other hand, if your spirit (separate from your body, which has been turned to ash and scattered throughout the world by now) is eternally awake and about its business in the heavenly realms, perhaps you’ve gotten that chance you were hoping for to see what things look like ‘behind the scenes.’
Did you get the answers you were looking for? You were prone to various misadventures, from the collision you had with a car pulling out of the local shopping center while you were biking past the exit, to your brain tumor that had us both so worried for a couple of years in the early 2010s, to the one that came out of the blue that finally took you away. If Job, for all his trials, wasn’t entitled to an explanation, how much less yourself – unless you both got to see how it worked out once you made it to the hereafter.
As for the continuations of the stories belonging to other people that briefly cross your path, well… if you’re given eternity to view your own life in retrospect (and I suppose that, for some people, that would seem like a pretty good idea for a punishment in hell), it would allow you to veer away from your role as protagonist in your own story, and pick up on someone else; like watching a film by Tarantino or Itami. But I suppose that film wouldn’t be available to you until you reach the other side, and presumably can transcend time to rewind and change your focus from one person to the next. I’ve always wondered how God Himself does that, keeping track of all of us, seeing that any given second would take Him some 250 years to review from the perspective of each and every person on earth. Imagine switching focus so many times for so long; then again, as the Author of it all, He can step away from any of our stories for any length of time, and when He gets back to it, will we have noticed any time passing at all?
Of course, as regard to the stories of those of us left here… I don’t know if the house has ever been left presentable enough to have others over, aside from the friends who’ve always been able to tolerate what we lived in the midst of, honey. Then again, aside from our turnaround driveway, it’s not like we could feasibly have all that many people over in the first place, for what it’s worth.
And with that having been said, I’m not sure I’ve been able to set my mind on things above like I ought to, even as I’m that much more aware of that place than most folks my age, thanks to your already being there. The thing is, it’s hard to think about the hereafter, when one only knows about – and is consumed by the various issues of – the here and now. Yes, I realize it’s little more than an excuse, but it is how things are. Maybe a little nudge to consider that part of my future would be in order, but I’m not sure how that would be done. And if the Lord thought it would be a good idea to give me that nudge, I’m sure He’d figure out a way to give it to me. Until then, though, I’d appreciate it if you would keep an eye on me, and wish me luck, as I’m likely going to need it.
Letters to Rachel 