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08/18/2015 Monday
From 10:04-11:59 PM
Last night, when I tried to relate God the Father to me, I had a hard time. Jesus is my good shepherd who told me, “I know you.” Also the Holy Spirit told me who he was, saying, “I am your tutor.” So, I could relate myself to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit. But when I tried to know who God the Father is to me, I had difficulty. So, I prayed to God that He might reveal Himself to me, that I might know Him.
Tonight, as I began my prayer, I could identify God the Father in my life very well. He is the One who chose me, followed me and brought me back to Himself. He is the One who waited patiently when I was going the wrong way, when I was even in sin; He is the One who did not reject me despite my sins; He is the One who watched me while I was doing terrible things, with anguished heart, hoping that I would come back. He is the One who protected me, working behind the scenes. He is the One who quietly embraced me and guided me without giving up. He is the One who was so concerned about my name that, when I wanted to move to Atlanta, He rolled out a red carpet for me, making it clear to everyone that I was going there according to God’s plan, not that I was going there as a failure.
Indeed, He has loved me, and His love for me is like the love of a father for his son; his love is quiet and seamless, like a stream or river that flows steadily all the time – so soothing. I am loved by God the Father, God the Son Jesus my Lord, and God the Holy Spirit. Maybe, I am the happiest person in the whole world; maybe, I am the most beloved person in the whole world.
I prayed to love my family and the church members with God’s love so that all people may come to know God’s love and experience it through me. But as I was thinking about it, I realized that there was a problem – practically, I didn’t know how to love others with God’s love. I am so introverted. So I asked the Holy Spirit how, saying, “I don’t know how to love my family members with God’s love. I don’t know how I should express God’s love to the church members.”
Then, a clear expression came to me: “It is to love with respect.” I immediately knew that the Holy Spirit was showing me how to love others with God’s love: by treating them respectfully. I was so thankful to the Holy Spirit for answering me. Then, I thought about what it meant to love others respectfully. It means to be very careful with my words and actions. It means to pay close attention to their feelings and emotions, and treat them very cautiously. Even if they do something wrong, it means to deal with them very carefully, not casually pointing out their problems, but being very sincere, being very careful that I may not hurt them.
When there is a very respected person who is so great, such a person who is far greater than me in position, I am very careful, so that even if he makes a mistake, I am afraid to point it out; simply, I keep quiet, knowing my position, never thinking that I am worthy to deal with him. That kind of attitude is to show respect. Then, everything became clear about how I must treat my family members – Johnna, Cori, Sarah, and Grace – all respectfully, not saying things at random, but holding my tongue, and using only proper words, treating them as if they are VIPs. Now I know how to love my family members with God’s love.
And exactly in the same way, I know how to love all the church members with God’s love – respectfully, treating them as VIPs, with such caution, being careful in my words and actions. I was thankful and happy for this revelation and direction. At the same time, I realized that that’s how God has loved me, being very careful so that I might not be hurt in my feelings and emotions even when I was going astray, often keeping quiet even when I was doing terrible things, being mindful of my pride, my name… God is love. His love is amazing. He treats me, even me, so respectfully as if I am really somebody to the Almighty God.
Who can imagine this? I love you, Lord, with all my heart and soul and mind. I love you, Lord. Now I know how I must love you – I must love you showing utmost respect; I must love you with deep respect. I love you with all my heart. Thank you for your love for me. This prayer time was such a blessing to me. I am satisfied.
Wow…reading that left me speechless. What a beautiful prayer testimony.
“It is to love with respect.” I’m really going to struggle to digest that. When I think about it, actually, that answer reveals God’s perfect and beautiful character. I’m reminded of the way God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all love, honor, and submit to one another in perfect humility. I pray that I would also learn to love others this way.
WOOOHOO!!! A TESTIMONY FROM Msn JOHN!!!! Aside from that comment, I too am speechless… Heavenly Father really is the True Father, in such a real, practical and mind blowing way…..
I am thankful to have read your prayer diary. I hope to read some more !!!!!!! 😊😊😊
That is so cool and epic. It inspires me to pray more, so I, too, can have this kind of cool moment with God in my prayer. XD
“To love with respect.” That is something that I need to learn too. Thank you for sharing your prayer diary.
I need to pray like this more often. Usually I just pray for sheep but during prayer it is not often when I think about how God loves me. When I pray I am going to think about God’s love for me and thank Him. I was touched when you told God that you were satisfied because of the prayer fellowship you had with Him. Thank you for your sincere testimony
Thank you so much for sharing this! It encourages me to seek to know and love God the Father more and to remain in prayer. It also encourages me to love others as God as loved me. Another thing I saw is that because of your continuous fellowship with God you are able to express yourself so beautifully, I struggle with this, but I hope that as I grow in my love relationship with the Trinity God, He will help me in this matter. I’m so thankful for God’s work in your life. Thank you again for sharing!
Thank you for your encouraging comment. God bless you greatly
Indeed, I’ve been treated as a VIP at the church despite my terrible sins. I am very grateful to have you as my shepherd and life guide. I am very grateful that God showed his mercy and sent me to this place. So blessed.
I am thankful for this, because often God’s love seems like a mystery. Sometimes I can sense it and other times I can see it through Jesus’ love and guidance in my life. I am touched by this prayer/love letter to God. I pray that I too may know God’s love more and more and learn to love others with honor and respect too. I thank you for always enlightening me and helping me to see how to love in God’s way rather than what I think it should be.
Wow that is so beautiful! Missionary John when you drove me to corner but understood my pride it helped me to repent because it was so gentle and understanding but very truthful and sincere. You got me thinking about how I should change my perspective about people.
I remember when you shared this at church before our “God is Love” conference in 2015. I am happy to read the written account. I want to go into deeper fellowship with God like you experienced and as I know God more reflect him in my daily life.
It is eye-opening the way you talked about how God has loved you and how to love others. I often just expect this kind of wonderful love because that is Gods character. But this makes me think that perhaps many times he wanted to say some harsh things against me, but he didn’t and instead treated me with great concern. This encourages me to love others more with this kind of love and to love God more sensitively.
That is so true! Love really is respect, wow, who would have thought that this is what love is all about? Looking back, I can see that the times when I really felt loved were when I was understood. It’s so amazing that God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, even loves with respect and understanding. I too must love that way!!!
It’s eye-opening to see your relationship with God is on such a personal level, just like Daniel was with God and how he was able to get the revelation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Your articulation of God’s love with these words: “his love is quiet and seamless, like a stream or river that flows steadily all the time – so soothing” really brought me to a realization of God’s love in my life. God’s love is not something so loud all the time, like a trumpet blast or a horn right in your face. It is often times the flowing of a gentle, quiet river. It is usually not blatant like I would guess it to be, instead, it is very soft and gentle. I see this now, this is how God has talked to me my entire life from when I started following God until now…through gentle whispers and through the soft impression of his Spirit-filled words coming from the Bible. God’s love for you and God’s love for all of us is very profound…it is respectful and kind. I never saw God’s love through that kind of viewpoint – of it being respectful. I will have to think about that, thank you, Missionary John, for getting me to think about this and inquire more deeply within about God’s love for me and for all of us. God bless you immensely. Thank you for a sneak peek into your prayer diary.
Love with respect. So simple but really so profound. And hard to apply ): But when I do its like my whole inner person changes and the ambiance between me and my wife is so nice. Our daughter is so happy then as well. 🙂 I can’t imagine how great it will be when I really let that sort of respectful love soak through me and really become a well worn into me part of my character. Jesus really does want to make our inner persons so great. Honestly when I think about the rotten, sarcastic, thoughtless person I was and how much he’s changed me and how much more he still wants to do I’m just floored by that. Praise Jesus
I know about writing a reflection/testimony on a passage, but writing a reflection/testimony about your prayer?!! Never heard of that, haha. May our prayer time also come to be so deep, intimate, and real that we too can have an inspiring prayer diary/testimony!
This is very touching! It’s really makes me want to spend more personal time with God.