L-O-V-E

Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days- Psalm 90:14

 

LOVE… a simply four letter word that holds incredible meaning behind it. It’s that feeling that makes a girl get “butterflies” in her stomach when she is around the guy that she has a crush on. It’s that word that I am sure we have all said at least once in our lifetime (hopefully many times).  It makes you do and say things you would never dream of doing.  It is suppose to never fail and protect.   Sadly many times however, it does fail and it does not protect.  A boy and a girl meet, they fall “in love” , get married , start a life and family together and then love fails and ends in heart breaking divorce. It breaks my heart to hear of it and to see friends go through it. I could not even imagine the pain, anguish, doubt, and fault that covers someone after a divorce. I have never experience divorced but I have been “in love” and have had the person that I love just walk away and break that love. I know many dear sisters that can probably relate to this.

Dear one, there is one who’s love is unfailing and who will NEVER walk away from you. Who will fight for you with His army of angels  ( Exodus 14:14 ).  After the hurt I have been through of losing a earthly love it simple blows me away just to think of the crazy love that our Savoir , King Jesus has for us. You can do absolutely nothing that would make Him walk away. He will never say “I give up on you.”  He has been my Rock and comfort and I know His love for me is unfailing.  Everything I possess in my life is a product of His love for me. I proudly boast in all that He has blessed me with (Psalm 44:8) I am everything because He loved me. I know many sweet sisters who want the earthly love of a man and I do too but I do not “require “a man on earth, in order to have love and to feel love.  Christ has given me everything that I need.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” – 2 Peter 1:3

He can satisfy our entire needs, dear sister. Fall in love with your King who is standing before you and reflect   His unfailing love for you, dear one. You will only find complete satisfaction and love in Him. No man on this earth can give you that. Although a man can be strong and close to Christ he is going to fail sooner or later. I feel like too many women today our trying to put their man on the pedestal of love that belongs to God only. I do blame part of the divorce and failed marriages on women because of that. Ladies, know that even if your man is the greatest Christian, he is going to fail at one point in life, he is human just like you and not perfect like your King. Do not place him in the spot where HE (King Jesus )belongs. Beloved, I pray that you know that His love for you is unfailing and that He is always there for you.  Willing to fight, protect and stand up for you in any battle.  For myself and all of you who are waiting patiently on an earthly man, keep waiting and trust in the Lord to bring him to you. A man after His own heart. Who will try with everything in him to love, protect, cherish, honor, and respect you.  

“For this reason I kneel before the Father,  from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen '– Eph 3: 14-21

God’s Path:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

 Isaiah 55:8

 

Right now I am still in Atlanta , Georgia , not where I thought I would be at all right now. It is October and the leaves are just beginning to fall. I am sitting here, in my room with a cup of apple spiced cider beside me.  The fall months are my favorites. The past few months have been hard because all of the emotions and feelings they hold but moving past and looking to the Lord and the future has never felt so good. I might not be where I thought I was going to be but the Lord knew I would be here and I am right where He wants me to be. Through it all I have become so much stronger in my daily walk with Him. Truly, seeking Him first in all that I do. Don’t get me wrong, there are times I stumble or want to veer off the path but the Lord gentle says “No, daughter this way.”  His way is always right. Dear one, I have found out something through all of this. All my life I had been asking God to walk with me and instead I should have been walking with Him.  I, the clay, was telling the potter what to spin and make.   I have realized that God’s blessing would come when I did what He said, not what I “wanted” or what “I said” but only through walking with Him.  Dear one, we are wise to walk with Him for protection and satisfaction, instead of us pleading with Him to walk with us.  I would like to share this from my dear sister’s book. I really think she did a wonderful job at capturing what it might look like when we get to heaven and talk to God about the paths that we took. This is from Beth Moore:

 

Imagine going to heaven and standing by God as He lovingly shows you His plan for your life. It begins with the day you are born. Once you received Christ as Savior, every day that follows is outlined in red. You see footprints walking through each day of your life. On many of the days, two sets of footprints appear. You inquire:  

“Father, are those my footprints every day, and is the second set of prints when You joined me,” He answers,

 “No, My precious Child. The consistent footprints are Mine. The second set of footprints are when your joined Me.”

“Where were You going Father.”

“To the destiny I planned for you, hoping you would follow. “

 “But Father where are my footprints all those times?”

“ Sometimes you went back to look at old resentments and habits, sometimes you chose your own path. Other times your footprints appear on another person’s calendar because you liked their plan better. Sometimes , you simply stopped because you would not let go of something you could not take with you.”

 “But Father , we ended up OK even if I did not walk with your every day didn’t we.”

 “ Yes , Child we ended up OK but , you see OK was never what I had in mind for you.

I am not sure about you dear one, but this scenario was a little too close to conversations I see myself having with God. “ I made it , right “ How sad. As the child of the Lord most High, who only wants the best for us we are ok with settling for “We made it.”   Scriptures shows us that we should always walk with Him. Beloved, we should want what He wants for us not what we want. Do you not think that the King of the universe knows what our heart desires more than anyone, or anything else? And He longs to bless us with that.  ( Psalm 37:4). Please remember dear one that walking with Him does not mean that you will always be perfect. You may stumble but you will not fall.

“ If the Lord delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand. – Psalm 37: 23-24

He gives us the power of strength every day to keep walking with Him.  ( Isaiah 40:31. He knows this path is hard for us but we have the gift of freely asking Him for strength, daily. In these uncertain times He also gives us the promise of a sure foundation. ( Isaiah 33: 6 ), (2 Timothy  2:19). He gives us the wisdom that we ask for in order to make the right choices each day. (James 1:5). If we lack wisdom ask Him to show us where, what and when to do it. We are walking on His path to victory. Do we really stop and think that we are walking on this path leading up to Heaven? To a city beyond our wildest dreams, we are on the path to that beginning of spending every second at the throne of Jesus. Dear one ,this world holds nothing that we should veer off the path to chase after. If it is something God wants you to have, trust me, it will be on His right and perfect path. Although stumbles , temptation and dark days come remember all you have to do is cry out to Him and He will come quickly and carry you back to His path.( Psalm 20 :1), ( Psalm 23: 4).  He will hold your hand through every “dark” step and will see that you arrive safely with Him on His path.  Beloved walk with Him, and let Him lead you on the path that He planned from the very beginning for you and you only.

Preparing for Your Groom:

 

“Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready.”- Revelation 19:7

Dear sisters, I believe that almost every one of us has a yearning to one day, be a beautiful bride and to live happily ever after. I know I have had that longing and still do. To one day enjoy life with an earthly man and have our marriage and love for each other reflect the love of Christ.  I believe our dear, sweet brothers hold desires that are very similar to that as well. Men desire a heritage and they want to live happily ever after as well. The Devil wants to extinguish our dreams and desires and the Lord wants to surpass them.  Dear one, He gives us dreams and desires so that we will long for His final reality.  God designed marriage so that we could understand a greater relationship ( Ephesians 5: 23-33). A marriage here on earth between a man and a woman is supposed to be the beautiful relationship that we all have with Christ.  Male or female we are the bride of Christ and the intimacy of the relationship is between Christ and believers.  He calls us “His bride.” I find it interesting that He used the word “bride” not “wife.”  Isaiah 61 shows clearly the Lord sweeping away the ashes and replacing them with a crown. 

“I delight greatly in the Lord;my soul rejoices in my God.For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. “

We are the bride of the Prince of Peace dear one.  I believe that the Lord used the word “bride” instead of “wife” for a few different reasons. The word bride means a lot of things the word wife does not. Bride shows, newness, a beautiful new dress, twinkling eyes, and new love.  I believe this is how our relationship with Christ is. We will always be “new” brides to Him.  It’s like watching a couple who has been married over 35 years and seeing that love and sparkle  still in their eyes for each other. I adore when I hear an older man call his wife “his bride’ it just seems to mean more and means that he still sees her the same as the day that he married her.  Gorgeous! This brings me back to thinking of the wedding day. A bride does not get ready in just one day to marry the groom. Most of my friends who have gotten married have planned their weddings from anywhere to 6 months to a year away, because they want everything to be perfect for that one day. That one day when they marry the man of their dreams, so they take time to prepare for that day. This goes back to Revelations 19:4-8. These verses talk about all the believers and Christ at the marriage dinner of the Lamb. I love verse 7.

“Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready”

“His bride has made herself ready,” Dear one, that means we cannot make ourselves ready the minute we see Christ, anymore then a woman can prepare to meet her groom at the alter within a  5 minute warning.  We have to be preparing now and dwelling on Him now. We as ladies get to know the man we are marrying. We know his heart, we know our differences, what we have in common and we continue to get to know him better each day.  It is the same with Christ. We cannot make ourselves ready without thinking about Him, dwelling on Him, meditating in His word, and simply basking in His truth and wonderfulness.  Psalm 45 shows us many of the characteristics of our Groom. Remember, dear one, we cannot be prepared for Him unless we ‘know’ Him.

Psalm 45:2- You are the most excellent of men and your lips have been anointed with grace, since God has blessed you forever.”  ( Respect for Him)

Psalm 25:7 - You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.” (Ultimate joy found in Him)

Psalm 45: 11 – The King is enthralled by your beauty; honor him for he is your lord.  (Your King absolutely adores and loves you )

Dear ones, this is your Groom. The one you are preparing yourself for.  I pray that you will live each day to make yourself “ready” for Him! He is all we will ever need!