Thank you for your good letter, which was very refreshing in its entirety, because I see that you are doing well and have maintained a healthy course. You sent Is. 27:3 as a comfort, but I could not find any comfort in this scripture at the present time. On the other hand, Ps. 139:16, which you sent for me to reflect on, has given me comfort and food for thought. I will leave it to you to work out the reason why, for this, too, belongs to the wisdom of God and mustn’t be skipped over.

You have noticed how short-sighted ungodly people are in their thoughts. They don’t think about the consequences. The more spiritual we are, the more far-sighted and reflective we become. In other words, when we set our sights on perfection, we find that God’s thoughts—since He is perfect—are precious and very weighty. Read verse 17 in the same chapter. I have personally long believed what Ps. 139:16 says, which is also consistent with Is. 63:19 and Jer. 1:5. “(For the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it was said to her, ‘The older shall serve the younger.’ As it is written, ‘Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.’” Rom. 9:11-13. There is no way around this. “And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory . . . .” Rom. 9:23. Haven’t you experienced some of the riches of this glory which you see He has poured out upon us? Eph. 1:17-18.

We return to God, having these exceedingly important thoughts and exceedingly great glory that He thought concerning us from time eternal, and He has brought us into existence at the proper time to accomplish the work that He prepared for us.

He has prepared works for us to carry out, enemies to conquer, goals to attain, and He has already seen us accomplish all these things, precisely in the way we will complete them. All this is a great comfort to me, but this comfort can’t free me from the tribulation that’s continuing to do its work. For someone who is fighting, there is no comfort without victory. You should notice that right from the start. All other comfort is fundamentally false. When the difficulties have been overcome, you can rejoice with a well-deserved and wholesome joy. Until that time comes, there is nothing to do but fight.

Norway’s independence was planned, in God’s wisdom, long before it came to pass. It seems like it came suddenly, because we don’t have enough of God’s insight; but it didn’t come suddenly for God. What we experience today is only a part of the overall scheme of things, and our fulfillment of God’s will only hastens the glory.

Thanks be to God who to this day has shown me grace—a sinner saved by grace, whom He has helped through great difficulties. It is not His will for His children to be defeated. God’s will is that we should leap over walls and run against a troop and walk straight ahead on the path that is before us. Because when we are oppressed, God’s zeal is kindled against our oppressors, so that He withdraws His grace from them and lets it rest upon the vessel of mercy, who thereby becomes invincible. “By my God I can leap over a wall,” David says.

If God had not been with me here on board, I would not have overcome. But His good, forward-thinking, and wise Spirit has mightily upheld me, enabling me to resolve difficult situations in my duties here on board. Moreover, His ever-present grace has been with me, allowing the right opportunities to come at the right time. I have peace now, but I am in the midst of wolves who are bent on revenge. I have prayed much for victory here on board, and anxiety has often gripped me as the enemy has been right at my throat. In His time, the Lord will reveal the purpose of all this. But I see that whether I have a cabin to myself or not, difficulties in my duties on board and freedom are quickly coming to a head.

Warm greetings with Eph. 1:22, in the context of this letter, for you to reflect upon.

Yours,