Thank you very much for your two postcards. I liked the one with the house on it. We are all doing well here, and I hope you are too. You haven’t been as diligent to write lately as you were in the beginning; perhaps your zeal has diminished. Zeal causes us to be fully established in hope. God is a zealous God. Tribulations and adversity of every kind will come, for sure, but tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope; and hope does not disappoint. In other words, everything works together for good to those who fear and love God. But to be a disciple of Jesus is to live a life of denying ourselves and taking up our cross. Nevertheless, He will not allow us to be tried beyond what we are able to bear. God’s thoughts toward us are thoughts of peace, and His ways are not always our ways. It can be painful to give up our own way in order to obediently follow God’s way, especially when we have the possibility of drawing back. But the Lord says: “If anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”

“The Lord tries His own; they are tested by fire,
But none of them will He forsake or despise.
The trials that you dread and that you least desire—
Just these are true blessings, dear friend, in disguise.”

The trials are blessings in disguise; that’s a fact. A servant in the church must first be tested. If he is found faithful, then he can serve in the church. Gold is refined in the fire, and acceptable people in the furnace of humiliation. If we are to be flexible and agile, we must be just as able to move downward as to move upward. The one who only strives after what the world regards as great is extremely sluggish, fettered, and inflexible. But the Spirit of wisdom is agile, and it makes those who receive it agile as well. For God cares for the insect crawling in the dust by the country road just as surely as He does the king in his palace. There you can see what liberty is. Imagine despising people who have been created in God’s image, because in our blindness we think that we can climb higher by treading on those who are more lowly. On the contrary, by humbling ourselves down to those who are more lowly, we get a sound understanding from the ground up; and from this foundation, we are competent to evaluate the highest peaks, since the foundation of these peaks is the common people. Every tower must have a foundation on which to stand. We should always make it our aim to practice strict self-criticism and self-control in the light of God’s Spirit; then we will be an impregnable fortress and a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master. We should always see to it that we are unassailable, for this is what it means to overcome evil. All sin is in the world because of lust. When lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; when sin is full-grown, it brings forth death. So, we must conquer our lusts and live in the Spirit. A person who gives in to the lusts of the flesh is of the world and fulfills the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Such a person sows to their flesh and will of the flesh reap corruption.

Just these few lines to give you something to think about and to comfort you—if you are within range of comfort, for God is a God of comfort.

Greet those who are at home, Ludvig and his family, and many greetings to you as well. Write and let me know how you’re doing. Don’t be afraid to speak freely; I’m not going to bite your head off. But hypocrisy is of the devil.

Your brother,