Message to a Friend

I just wrote this to a friend. I wonder if it applies to you?

-------,

Thanks so much for your e-mail. It's great to hear from you... It's been a while!

I prayed for you this morning. I prayed for God to show you His sovereignty and to provide for you. To be honest, ------- - I struggle with the same exact things. I want to take my life into my own hands and twist circumstances to serve the idols of my heart.

And they really are idols. Why? Because we desire them more than we desire God. In them, we place our salvation, our trust, and hope. For me, that is a relationship with a girl. Of course, there is nothing wrong with relationships - but I think we have a tendency to adopt the view that "the grass is greener on the other side". And so us single folk want to be with people, and those who are in relationships realize that it is indeed no panacea for the loneliness and longing. Relationships don't play out the way that k-dramas or fiction lead us to believe that they will.

My inspiration to write this to you draws from Mere Christianity's short chapter on Hope. I read it this morning as a devotional and I think it is really applicable in this situation.

Anyway, I just want to encourage you ------- - trust in the Lord. Let Him be our treasure. I pray this over both of us, because I also put my hope in a relationship, put my hope in some finite point in the future; when really, we should just try to get a glimpse of God's glory. Nothing else compares to the day when we will finally meet our Lord and understand fully his Will, his Purpose, his Power, and everything else.

As it says in 1 Corinthians 13, following Paul's description of what true Love is, he goes on to say:

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Be encouraged -------. The greatest treasure of all is already ours in Jesus. We do not fully grasp the glory of it now, but we will one day. Perhaps a relationship is a means to getting a better glimpse of that picture, but it's not everything.

God bless you.

With love,


Daniel