At the risk of seeming to be trying to sell you a product, I'm going to recommend that you go to our online store and get our audio album entitled "Dear God, What's the Point of Prayer".

Of course, God knows what's best for us and that we must just accept this by faith, but prayer is simply conversations with God. How else can you hope to bond with someone other than via communication? If God always did it your way, that would put you in control, wouldn't it? That would make YOU god. That's the way things were when you were lost. I find great comfort in the verse that says, "The mind of man plans his way, but
the Lord directs his steps" (Prov. 16:9). Even though Anabel and I have experienced some mighty rough sledding in our lives, I've found that it's very comforting to know that the One Who is the most Powerful, the One Who loves me more than I love myself, the One Who runs the entire universe, the One Who says He has my life all planned out and says that He is choreographing heaven and earth to carry out His plan, has everything under control. How can I beat a deal like that?

May I challenge you with something? The Bible says we're to praise God in all things and for all things. That seems so nonsensical at times, but I believe God has shown me why this is true.

By initiating His plan to become our spiritual Father, or more intimately, our Dad (Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:15),or even more intimately, our Bridegroom (Hosea 2:16-20), a problem arose: how to re-create free moral objects-of-His-affection who would love Him for who He is, rather than for what He could do for them. Please read that again. This is a problem for anyone who is "the richest man in town," be he God or human. The richer the
person, the greater the possibility that those who profess to love him simply cater to him in order to curry his favor. Many seek benefits from him rather than a personal relationship with him. If he were poor, they would never seek his friendship nor respond to his overtures to establish one, especially if he insisted on being in control. It seems to me that rich humans can never really know, beyond a doubt, that anyone poorer than they
are truly loves them. Unconditional love is to be found in God alone.

God knows the intentions of our heart because He is omniscient (all-knowing). We Christians, however, who profess to love Him can never be certain of our own love for Him until we experience what we perceive to be undeserved suffering. When we are in the midst of such suffering, we have the advantage of choosing to continue to believe God is altruistic toward us, or to opt for Satan's accusations against Him-accusations the power of
sin will submit to our minds in those first-person-singular pronouns (I, me, my, etc.) God has placed us in an environment which provides us with a choice. This way we can discern the depth of our love for Him. Tell me, can there be any other way? I don't think so.

This explains why earth is not a Disneyland. If it were, we'd all be lined up at the cotton candy stand (with me at the head of the line). God tried that already in Eden and it didn't work. God already knows if I love Him just for Himself. The problem is that I don't know. So, how can I find out? I can know when bad things happen to me that I don't feel like I deserve. I believe this is the only way and explains why we suffer.

Sweet sister, independence is Adam's original sin. Like Pinnochio jumped off the creation table and ran away to do it his way, Adam demanded the right to do it his way and we inherited that bent from him. Part of getting saved is that we now settle on letting God do it His way while we praise Him for it.

I love you,
Bill Gillham