I was reading in Luke 18 about the blind beggar man who followed Jesus asking Him to have mercy on Him. Finally, Jesus stopped and said, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

The man said, “Lord, I want to regain my sight!”  And the Lord healed him.

Luke 18:40 And Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to Him; and when he came near, He questioned him, ⁴¹ “What do you want Me to do for you?” And he said, “Lord, I want to regain my sight!” ⁴² And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.” ⁴³ Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him, glorifying God; and when all the people saw it, they gave praise to God.

I thought about what I would say if God asked me the question. What do you want Me to do for you? 

From the journal . . . .  Dec. 1999

Lord, I want You to make me the person You meant for me to be.  I want to be pleasing to You. 

When I wrote this my biggest concern was the amount of time I spent thinking about the romantic relationships of people I knew.  Could that be pleasing to God?  I wrote to the Lord more specifically about that and then went on to a disappointing relationship of a couple I cared about that I’ll call the Browns.

Lord, the Browns are splitting up and she has gone with an old boyfriend.  She’s talking about a divorce.  My poor friend, Mr. B.  We knew him when he met You, Lord, and when he met Mrs. B.  He’s always been so committed to You and their marriage. She seemed so also. It’s so sad, and they have young kids.  Oh Lord, we wonder what happened to allow them to drift apart.

And God Said to Me:

Sin is strong.  You must stay close to Me.  You can never say, “I’ll take it from here” or “I’ll handle this.”  You need Me.  You need to fear Me.  Fear being separated from Me.  Be the sheep in your picture that stays close to the shepherd.  Like Mitchel Cabot, your little student who likes to be so close to teacher.  Be like that.  Cling to Me.  We can go anywhere but go together. 

Deut 10:20 You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name.
John 15:4-5  Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. ⁵ I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

You know that you are not always happy with Mark. You also know there isn’t another option for you.  Knowing that makes you work harder at this relationship.  You don’t consider life with another.  I’m the other man in your life.  I’m your main man and I say, “Love your husband! Cherish him!”

Matt 19:4-7 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” 

When I came to know the Lord in 1975, our marriage was not good, and I was no longer in love with Mark.  We were separated and I was planning on a divorce.  The Lord made it clear to me that I was to stay with him.  The choices were to be happily married or unhappily married, but to stay married to Mark.  Jesus also assured me that He would show me His way to make it work.  I was no longer in love with Mark, but I sure was head over heels in love with Jesus!  That’s where the motivation came in and love for my husband was reborn.  Not instantly, but steadily growing stronger and more committed for the next fifty years! 

I know that it doesn’t always work out that way for all marriages, but it certainly was what we needed.  We would not have survived otherwise.  God did what only He could do and I continually thank Him for that!!