The truth is so easy, so plain. Now that I know the truth, I feel like a total idiot. How could I have been so blind? I have always known it. It is the parable of the man that planted good seed and an enemy came, and planted tares among the wheat. The good seed being truth. The tares being lies. The result - confusion!

Not by prayer, nor by faith, nor by studying, not by beholding or claiming promises do we become changed. Endurance is the key that unlocks the gates to heaven. Those that endure to the end shall be saved. Matt. 10:22.

Did not Elijah pray six times for it to rain? Was prayer enough? No. Six times -- No rain. Did he not know the word of God? Yes. Was prayer, faith, and knowledge enough? No. Did he not claim promises? And yet, after praying six times, after looking every single time for the answer to his prayers, it still did not rain. Why the seventh time? Why not the sixth time? Why not on the fifth time or the first? Did Elijah have more faith and knowledge the seventh time? Did he know more, and claim more promises the seventh time? No. Do you not know that the number seven represents perfection? Perfect endurance in the promises of God was Elijah's test and He persevered with God, like Jacob, who said, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." Genesis 32:26.

If Elijah had quit praying the sixth time, it never would have rained. But, Elijah was determined to pray until he got an answer. He would not give up! He would have prayed for seven days, or seventy days, or seventy years, if that were what it took. Yet, prayer is not what caused the rain to fall. He prayed to "God." He had faith in "God." He studied "God." He claimed the promises of "God," and it was "God" who heard his prayers, and caused the rain to fall.

You most likely think that God does not listen to you because of your sins. I felt the same way. However, was not Elijah just like you and me, born a sinner, raised in a sinful world, with sinful tendencies, and sinful influences all around him? Elijah was a human being like us, with a nature like ours, "a man subject to like passions as we are" James 5:17. He committed sins himself.

Let us take a look at King David, who murdered a man because he lusted after his wife. Have you ever killed someone so you could have his or her spouse? If you ever had done such a thing would you not feel like an even greater sinner than you already are, hopeless, helpless, and lost forever? Yet do you know that, according to the Bible, we will see David in heaven? Read Hebrews 11. Was it faith that saved King David? No. Faith is nothing being alone. See James 2:17. Prayer is nothing alone. Hours a day of reading our Bible is nothing alone. Endurance is nothing alone. Even Jesus cannot save us alone. If He could, we would all be in heaven today, would we not? Not that He is unable, but He is unwilling to have us be robots, or to save us against our will.

We all know the things that are wrong in our lives, what light we are not following, and what Jesus wants from us. Why is committing our sins wrong? Is it just because "Jesus said so?" What is Jesus Himself like? 1 Corinthians 13, as we all know, is called "The Love Chapter." We read it, and all our shortcomings appear before our eyes. Is that why it was written? No. Let us discover a new lesson that may change the way we read the Bible forever. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 reads in The 1884 Darby Version, The 1901 American Standard Version, 1912 Weymouth New Testament Translation, and others:

We read these things and say to ourselves, "I can never be like that. I might as well give up. Why try?" Yet, God also says we can do none of these things of ourselves. No wonder we are discouraged. Now let us look at these verses as God intended them to be understood.

Does not the Bible say, "God is love?" 1 John 4:8, 16. Is not 1 Corinthians 13 about love? Therefore, is it not talking about God? All three of them, God, the Father; God, the Son; and God, the Holy Spirit. Let us re-read it with this in mind. It reads in truth more like this:

Is this not how Jesus lived on earth and did He not say "I do nothing of myself, only what I see the Father doing"? See John 5:19. Would God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit require something of us that they themselves do not do? God suffers long, is kind, is not proud, is not rude or selfish because they love us. They are not easily provoked to anger by us. They think no evil towards us. They bear all things, hope all things, and endure all things in hope of saving us. And they "Never fail!" O, the Love of God. That is what the whole Bible is about. All the things in the Bible written about Elijah, David, Jesus, and John are written for one reason. Not that we will do what we are supposed to do, not that we will copy in our own power their character, but that we will love who we should be loving, God.

Love God! Yet, how can we make our hearts feel such a thing? Can we by willpower and determination make ourselves love anyone, even God? Have you ever had someone very nice have a crush on you, but you were not interested? Sometimes we try to make ourselves love them, if they are kind, but we cannot. The Godhead knows we cannot make ourselves love them, and they refuse to make us robots, so what are we suppose to do? It is easy and "the truth shall set you free."

Copyright © 1999 -
by Debra A. Snipes
In His Service, NFP
All Rights Reserved

All scripture quotations are from the
1769 Authorized King James Version of the Bible
All italics are supplied by author

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