Not long ago, I worked as an employee for a construction company and eventually became a foreman. I always enjoyed work connected with erecting large buildings on undeveloped land. Everything would have been fine except for one small problem with my wages: they were not enough to cover our current expenses. We had to live continually in debt, dreaming that someday all this would end and we would finally ‘begin to live.’ My daughter knew that her father never had money, and she was ashamed of this before her classmates. At times, I had to take out loans to repay debts to the bank, then spend several years paying back with interest what I earned each month through my labor.
Despite these circumstances, for some reason my friends considered me very wealthy because I lived and worked in western Germany. Yet I did not even own personal work tools at home because I would have needed money to purchase them. I visited hardware stores as though they were museums, calling them the ‘Exhibition of the Achievements of the German Economy,’ and examined and studied the tools I could have enjoyed using if they belonged to me.
At one point in my life, the Lord introduced me to a real estate broker who wanted to renovate his home. I offered my services, and the work moved forward. Because of this man, my financial situation improved slightly, but my debts did not disappear.
After some time, this broker suggested that I start my own company. He promised to provide me with work and said that my financial condition would improve.
I was afraid to take this step and prayed a great deal. The Lord answered my questions with His approval and helped me understand that I should go forward without fear because He would be with me everywhere.
I took a step of faith and became self-employed. A new world of interesting possibilities opened before me. All my small dreams of acquiring good tools were fulfilled very quickly, but I also began to lack time for my personal life. My entire way of life changed, and everything began revolving around the new company. Although I never became wealthy during all the years of this new work, because so many more important needs surrounded me, I learned how large amounts of money can be earned honestly. Yet this required certain risks and capital investments. Knowing how something can be done does not necessarily mean living that way or possessing it.
The Lord fulfilled all my earthly dreams, which proved not to be so precious after all. But through my new work, I was able to enrich my friends with the things with which the Lord blessed me. I asked them what they needed and then fulfilled their dreams according to my abilities. Looking back, I realized that if I had remained in my former job, I would still be struggling with debt and dreaming that someday I might buy myself at least one good cordless drill. Now, because of me, many of my friends possess excellent tools that I once could not afford for myself.
When I became part of the Christian world, I did not know who I would grow to become. My continual concern for my family’s well-being limited my time. I had to grasp many truths while on the run and dream that something in my life would change. I dreamed of having many spiritual friends with whom we would love one another, but I had neither the time nor the knowledge to understand where to find them. All my attempts to become a friend ended at the first crossroads of conflicting opinions. Afterward, we would part politely, and I would have to search for new friends while dreaming that someday I would meet someone who appreciated me and loved me unconditionally. Only in Jesus did I have such a Friend, Who was faithful in everything and never left me. I walked among Bible verses about friendship and love as though they were an exhibition of the achievements of Christian relationships from centuries past, unable to imagine how such relationships could be attained in my circumstances today.
But the Lord was preparing me for great changes. He helped me understand that a better life exists in Christ and called me to take a step of faith, enter into a transaction with Him, and become self-employed in the spiritual world. He promised to provide me with revelations about great and mighty things if I called upon Him for them. Jesus also helped me understand that He would enrich me if I dared to engage in a special kind of trade. I did not understand what this meant, but I ventured to take this step of faith and pleaded for agape love without even understanding how my life would change or what awaited me. A new world of amazing revelations and interesting opportunities became available to me. My dreams of friends began to be fulfilled with remarkable success. Within these friendships, I discovered new dimensions of love of which I had never been aware. My entire way of life changed and began revolving around this new love. I can honestly say that during this time the Lord enriched me with the love He had promised and, through me, began enriching all my friends. My habit of giving away everything valuable proved very useful in distributing God’s blessings. I never learned to keep them secret from my friends but shared them at all times.
The Lord fulfilled all my dreams of loving friends and made me a loving friend as well. I no longer dream about them. I love them and pray for them, rejoice in their words and their spirit of love, and enrich them through my attitude and friendliness.
Love not only made me rich in love but, through me, also enriched everyone who desired to become rich in it. All my personal revelations became part of my friends’ lives and continue bestowing gifts upon everyone who desires to obtain gold refined in the fire.
My loving friends became God’s blessing to me, which maketh rich and addeth no sorrow with it. I became the same kind of intermediary source of enrichment for them—a friend who loves at all times.
Heaven decided to keep the doors of the bank of love open for those who responded to the counsel of the Faithful Witness and became regular customers. Air, water, and love—all these fill the endless Universe and become my Eternal possession, never ceasing within my life. I breathe, drink, become rich through the gifts of God’s grace, and purchase them without gold or silver.
It is difficult for me to imagine how I once lived without this trade, continually in debt and dreaming only of somehow breaking even and no longer living on credit. But the Lord not only paid all my debts; He also gave me gold tried in the fire. This is truly a genuine treasure of which I am not ashamed to boast.
When I tell others that I love, that I understand what love is, and that I possess it in abundance, it is as though I boast in God and in the fact that I know and understand Him within myself. I understand that the Lord exercises judgment, lovingkindness, and righteousness toward me. Through love for those around me and for my friends, I become rich in special revelations about how this love loves at all times, how wonderful it is to possess it, and what happiness it is to love.
What does a loving person lose? He loses the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. It once seemed impossible to live without these qualities, but love fulfills every need of the soul so completely that you cannot imagine why you would want anything else when you can simply love.
The commandment to love one another no longer seems to me like something belonging only to the history of early Christianity. We love one another, and this brings joy to the heart every day. Within this is something special, important, and truly valuable that can be purchased only with Eternal love.
Bible Verses for Reflection
1 Samuel 2:7; 2 Corinthians 6:10; 9:8; Isaiah 13:12; Psalm 45:13; Revelation 3:17–18; John 13:34–35; Luke 12:16–21, 31–32; Proverbs 10:4, 22; 17:17; 18:24; Luke 16:9; John 15:12–13; 1 Timothy 6:6–8; Jeremiah 9:23–24; 33:2–3.