Personal Testimony
It was mid-morning at the airport in Budapest. Standing in line, I stared for a moment at the aircraft I was about to embark on, its red livery shining against the white background. The wings of the morning, I mused.
Finally!After so much waiting, after so many conquered obstacles, I was now boarding the plane that would take me to the other side of the world.
Finding my seat, I placed my carry-on bag in the overhead bin above and settled down for the long journey. As the plane took off and lifted from the ground, the verse from Psalms 139 echoed again.
“If I take the wings of the morning…”
* * *
Betty* and I first came in contact in November 2021. She was working with a team in Australia at that time, and I was volunteering for a similar organization here in Europe, and that’s how we got to know each other. We soon found out we had a lot of things in common: same age, same number of siblings, same homeschooling background, and similar interests and goals in life. So we kept messaging each other for almost a year and a half.
Then in 2023, Betty decided to come and visit me in Romania over the summer. Part of the plan was to spend some enjoyable days together around Europe. Spending so much time together, we soon got to deeper conversations about life. I found out about some emotionally challenging things she was going through. To make things worse, burnout and loneliness capped it all.
I tried to sympathize, and did my best to give words of encouragement. I myself was learning to overcome some difficult situations in my life, so I shared with her how God was teaching me the lessons of happiness and contentment.
While we were visiting Europe, I soon began to notice a difference between us. I was constantly sending pictures to my family, sure that my parents and siblings were looking forward to receiving them. Also, my mom had asked me to call her every day and tell her where I had been, what I had seen, and what I had done during the day. I had people I could share my joys with. However, Betty did not. She had nobody to share photos with. Nobody called her, and there was no person she could go to consistently and unreservedly, and open up about her life experiences as I did with my family.
Her difficulties—which I had understood at brain level—were slowly sinking in. They finally made its way from my brain to my heart, and all of a sudden the reality of her loneliness just dawned on me. I started to actually feel for her.
So one evening, after going to bed, I decided to tell her what I had observed and what I thought could be the solution.
“Betty, you should get married!” I blurted out.
And I went ahead, telling her just what I had in mind. I did not expect what followed next.
My friend suddenly burst into tears. She cried, and cried, and cried. Tears just kept flowing. Not knowing what else to do, I took her in my arms and hugged her.
I felt very guilty and awkward. I had inadvertently unsealed the springs of her suffering, which had been kept inside her own little heart for so long. Lord, what should I do now?!?
Words of encouragement seemed so weak and inappropriate. What could I tell this poor, crying soul? That I understood her? No, I did not understand her. I was definitely not in her situation, and had never experienced some of the things she had gone through.
Holding my friend in my arms, the only thing that crossed my mind was that I should commit to pray for her daily. I was reticent, for that was quite a commitment, and I did not consider myself a prayer warrior. However, the desire to help and comfort outweighed the feelings of reticence. “Betty, starting from today, I will pray for you every day, until you get married!”
Those words seemed to calm her down, and a long talk followed. “And if I ever get married, would you come to my wedding?” she asked between sobs. “Of course I will!” (What else could I say?)
That moment bonded my heart to hers, and the memory of that summer evening sustained me in the following months to keep my promise.
Day after day for months, I brought up her name before the Lord. Sometimes I would be in earnest, praying long on my knees. Other days, I would just dart a one-sentence request before I drifted off to sleep. It was not always easy. But I continued praying, feelings or no feelings. With few exceptions, I consistently brought her case before God. I asked Him to bless her with a partner that would provide the emotional support she needed.
In December 2023, Betty wrote to me about a relationship that had started between her and a Christian young man. Four months later, she was still happy and fulfilled. In October, she sent me photos of her engagement! I felt more motivated. Things were happening, and it was encouraging! Prayer actually worked!
* * *
It was now the end of December 2024, just a few days into my winter vacation. One morning, I read in my Bible from 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13: “For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God; Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith? Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you. And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.”
To pray for someone daily and not grow mechanical or formal about it requires a great deal of creativity. I had accustomed myself to look in the Bible for specific things to pray for. Paul’s letters especially inspired me, because in them I found special requests he made to God for the Christian believers.
This time, something in these verses drew my attention. “Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face.” “God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you.” I believe the Holy Spirit impressed my mind that I should make this my own prayer. It was a very specific request: that God may open the way for me to see my friend and her fiancé, face to face, one day soon.
A few days later, I received the wedding invitation! March 9, just a few weeks ahead!
Being a university student and teacher at an Adventist high school, my possibilities were limited. I had to get the money for the trip and a leave from work. However, in a short time and through a series of miracles, I was able to obtain a leave and book my flight. Then the biggest obstacle came up: obtaining a visitor visa to Australia.
In my naivety, I did not realize the mistake of booking a flight before getting a visa. Being accustomed to easy traveling conditions within Europe, I had thought the visa issue an easy matter and treated it just as a formality. Submit a few documents, and wait. The response would eventually come. And come it did. But it was a refusal!
In the meantime, God arranged things to put me in contact with some people who kindly offered to help me. Slowly, we began to gather more documentation. I had to face obstacle after obstacle and many hard moments along the way. Things were moving very slowly, and time began to be short.
All the while, I tried to be strong. I wanted to show faith, saying to everyone that things would eventually work out, and if they didn’t, that I would take it as God’s will.
But sometimes I was discouraged, and many thoughts crossed my mind. Was it God who put it on my heart to pray for this? Was I being presumptuous? Stubborn? Dreamy?
On the other hand, if this was from God, was I showing lack of faith?
I read again the first chapters of 1 Thessalonians. “But we, brethren, […] endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.”
Well, I thought, if Satan ruined Paul’s plans to see the Thessalonians, what could a young girl hope for?
* * *
As I struggled with my own confusing thoughts, I remembered a promise I had received a long time ago. On January 27, 2022, Betty and I had had our first video chat. And that morning, as part of my daily devotions, I had read Psalm 139. Verses 9 and 10 drew my attention in a special way. So I underlined them and wrote the date next to them.
Those verses gave me hope now. They seemed so appropriate. And they were given exactly three years before! Was God telling me it was His will for me to go to Australia?
At the same time, I was hesitant to claim that promise. Was I using God’s Word to fit my own desires? Was I taking this passage out of context and applying it to my situation, to suit my present circumstances? It seemed so presumptuous to force things from God, to get the outcome that I personally wanted. At the same time, I knew that “there is no sin greater than unbelief” (My Life Today, p. 14), and I was afraid to commit that sin and not walk on the path God had shown.
Right when I was struggling with these thoughts, God answered my questions, bringing across my path the following quote:
“Just so has God given us the precious promises throughout His Word. The Scriptures are open to us as the garden of God, and their promises are as fragrant flowers blooming all over that garden. God especially calls our attention to the very ones that are appropriate for us. In these promises we may discern the character of God and read His love to us. They are the ground upon which our faith rests, the support and strength of our faith and hope, and through these we are to delight our souls in God and breathe in the fragrance of heaven. Through the precious promises He withdraws the veil from the future and gives us glimpses of the things which He has prepared for those who love Him….
“We should not regard them with carelessness or indifference. But as we would examine the precious flowers, … delighting our senses with their loveliness and fragrance, just so we should take the promises of God, one by one, and examine them closely on every side—take in their richness, and be soothed, comforted, encouraged, and strengthened by them. God has provided for all the comforts the soul needs. They are suited to the friendless, the poverty stricken, the wealthy, the sick, the bereaved—all may have their appropriate help if they will see and take hold upon these by faith. God scatters blessings all along our path to brighten the rugged way of life, and we want to be receiving all the comfort and tokens of God’s love with grateful hearts.” (The Review and Herald, October 11, 1887)
That was a direct answer to my question! I learned my lesson. God gives personal promises—the very ones that are appropriate for us and the circumstances we go through. We should not regard them with carelessness or indifference. He promised a son to Abraham, he gave dreams to Joseph. He is interested in each one of our lives, and He has a plan. Often, He shows us that plan through specific promises in the Bible.
I also realized God is much more interested in answering our questions than we are in bringing our perplexities to Him. I was overwhelmed, not so much by the promise, but by the fact that God thought of me. He stooped down to speak to me personally—an insignificant girl in a little corner of the world.
* * *
Finally, I was able to gather all documents and apply for a visa a second time. There was nothing else I could do now, except to wait. One week dragged by. No answer. The second week began, and still no answer.
One morning the second week, I woke up really early, around 2:00 AM. Devotions first, I started to prepare that day’s lesson for Church History class.
It was about Josiah Litch, the Millerite preacher who, based on his study of Revelation 9, predicted the exact date for the fall of the Ottoman Empire. On the day the Bible had prophesied, the vessel carrying that ultimatum from the European powers to Pasha Muhammad Ali cast anchor on the shores of Egypt.
That vessel could have encountered storms and arrived days later. Or it could have had a smooth journey and arrived one day earlier. But no—it anchored August 11, 1840, just as prophecy had predicted. “Like the stars in the vast circuit of their appointed path, God’s purposes know no haste and no delay” (The Desire of Ages, p. 32).
I was at peace.
Next morning, the grant letter arrived in my email. It was twelve days before my scheduled flight.
* * *
While I was in Australia, some friends took me to see the Pacific Ocean. As I stood watching from that lookout in Port Macquarie, the immensity of the sea made me feel so little in comparison. “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” With the wind blowing strongly on my face, the words of Psalms 139 seemed to echo again. “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”
Lessons I learned about prayer
- The greatest argument that God exists is that He answers prayer. He has revealed Himself as a “prayer-hearing, prayer-answering God” (The Ministry of Healing, p. 199.4).
- God wants us to “be concerned for one another” (Heb. 10:24, GNT) and observe their deeper needs. In the family of God—the church—our heavenly Father has made us the keepers of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Besides family and neighbors, the Lord might bring specific people into our lives to pray for. It might even be someone from the other side of the world.
- “It is a part of God’s plan to grant us, in answer to the prayer of faith, that which He would not bestow did we not thus ask” (The Great Controversy, p. 525). God has specific plans for each one, specific blessings He longs to bestow. And for some reason, He can only give them to us in answer to the prayer of faith. Imagine you end up in heaven, and you are reading the story of your life. You read about some specific blessing that God wanted to give. And then you read: “This blessing was never granted to _____, because he never asked for it. God waited, and waited, but the prayer of faith never came.” What a tragic thought, to miss out on God’s blessing simply because we did not ask! How would your life have been different? How would other lives have been impacted? No wonder Satan tries to keep us away from prayer!
- In order to receive the blessings God wants to give us, we don’t need to spend our energies asking for everything that comes to our minds! Instead, we should ask Him what to pray for. Be attentive to the impressions of the Holy Spirit. He speaks through the Word, through nature, and through providence. He has a plan for each one. He will show you, in a way that is clear, the things and the people He wants you to specifically pray for.
- It is easy for us to believe God’s promises related to forgiveness of sins and salvation. But when we face earthly problems, like health issues, material needs, and emotional/relational issues, it might be difficult to take hold of specific promises and claim them in prayer. In this case, I would encourage you to bring your particular case to God and ask Him how to pray. “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought… because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:26-27
- If God has given you a personal promise, and you don’t see its fulfillment in your life, pray about it. The solution might often lie in waiting (Hab. 2:3). Sometimes, the fulfillment of His promises come in ways that are different from what we expected or initially understood. No matter the appearances, God will always fulfill His promises to us. I would encourage you to study the stories of Abraham and Joseph. They both received promises for the future, but they could not always see their fulfillment in their lives. Additionally, I would also recommend a study of the Great Disappointment in 1844, and the testimony of Mikhail Kulakov, found in his book Though the Heavens Fall.
- Prayer is a science, with new and intricate things to discover every time; but God is a great teacher! Let Him start you on that journey of faith!
Great content! Keep up the good work!