Trusting Christ’s Leadership of Your Love Life

 

Many of you know that I have a soft spot in my heart for younger women. Their energy and desire to make a difference in the world inspires me. A couple of months ago, I connected with Alison via Twitter, and we bonded over how uncooked rice can save your water damaged iphone.

Alison is a young woman who is on fire for Jesus Christ. I am honored to have her on the blog today. If you are single, you are about to be encouraged BIG TIME. For those who are married, Alison’s words still challenge: are we at rest, free of anxiety, and fixing our thoughts on Jesus? Such vulnerable, wise, and honest thoughts from one so young…

Here’s Alison:

 

 

I wrote this a couple years ago, in a season when I was losing sleep (and mental peace) over the budding possibility of a new relationship. I was desperately trying to hold onto control of the outcome – I had no idea if it would blossom into anything real and lasting. I was out of control. And then one day, God asked me if I truly trusted His leadership in my life, especially in the area of love, relationships and marriage. He challenged me to lay my heart upon the altar of trust, asking me to entrust my entire life and heart (with all my fragile dreams, hopes and desires) into His loving hands. Below is my response to His challenge to trust His leadership.

 

Trusting Christ’s Leadership of Your Love Life

 

 

You will keep him in perfect peace,

whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.

(Isaiah 26:3)

 

What would it truly be like to be at COMPLETE REST in Christ’s leadership? Shalom rest in His leadership, where we are not striving with Him, or fighting against Him, but truly just restingwith Him, because we just trust Him. Simply trust Him.

Not a flinching trust, that says we trust Him but we’re flinching, and fearing that something horrible could happen if we let go of everything to Him. Not a flinching trust that believes that our heart’s desires aren’t truly safe with Him. Just a TOTAL unflinching trust. Not a partial rest where I keep one eye open to see if He’ll drop me or let me down. But TOTAL abandonment to rest in Him and trust Him. SHALOM.

Full-throttle trust. Pure rest. A heart at rest. A heart that trusts. A heart that just knows that God is good. And that He is the best leader – not me.

A trust that knows that He’s the best one to write the story and to lead the plot. The whole storyline. The whole shebang. Trusting His leadership. Taking my hands right off. Total shalom peace and rest. Being not anxious about a thing. Not worried at all. Completely at rest. He is good. His leadership is 100% reliable.

I lean all my weight on His trustworthiness and His awareness of my deepest needs and desires and His ability to lead the man I will one day marry to pursue me. He will wake this man up and he will clearly pursue me. No games. No confusion. No questioning. Clear, pure pursuit. At the right time. God’s season. God’s time. Delight comes with alignment to His timing and His way.

I can give little hints along the way, because I am a woman and I am not to be stoic and cold, but I don’t have to throw myself at him. As the Lord releases me, in little ways, I can respond to him and show kindness.

I want to know that the man that I will one day marry had to fight for me. That he was more than willing to fight for me even if all the signs appeared that it might not ever happen. A man in love will die for his bride if that’s what it takes to win his beloved’s heart. We want nothing less than someone that would die for us, as Christ did. We want a man that understands sacrifice, and understands the battle to win a woman’s heart.

 “Bury your heart so deep in God that a man has to go to Jesus to find it.”

(Author Unknown)

 

There is no need to rush. It’s the process, not the outcome, that’s important. I don’t need to do any snagging. REST. Just be beautiful for Christ’s sake! BE the beloved. Christ’s beloved. REST. Be not anxious for ANYTHING.

 

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all.

The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition,

with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all

understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 4:4-7)

 

Rejoice, even now. Just rejoice!! Even if your heart is burning or tortured or questioning or just plain anxious. Rejoice! Do not be anxious at all. Let the inexplicable abundant peace of Christ fill you completely. No matter the season! No matter whether the future looks bleak or the future looks exciting. No matter whether there is someone in your life or not. Rejoice! Always rejoice!

 

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure,

whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think

about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me –

put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

(Philippians 4:8-9)

 

Think upon all the beautiful things of the Lord. His peace will be with you. Jesus is so beautiful. Jesus is captivating. Jesus is noble and true and right and pure and lovely and admirable and excellent and praiseworthy. Jesus, we are addicted to thinking about You!

 

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him

endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary

and lose heart.

(Hebrews 12:2-3)

 

Fix your eyes on Jesus. HE’S THE MAN. He’s the One we have for eternity. He is our Eternal Companion. Humans are mere mortals (and lovely ones at that! Gotta love ‘em!) but the One we have for eternity is the Man Christ Jesus. Fix your eyes on Him who is the best author and writer of all stories, especially love stories. We want Him to be the author. I don’t want to hold onto the pen whatsoever. I don’t want a story written by Alison. You don’t either. You want to know He wrote it. So let Him write it. Let Him write an epic masterpiece, full of mystery, intrigue, suspense and ROMANCE.

 

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom,

and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

(1 Corinthians 1:25)

 

It could look completely foolish NOT to grab at the fruit right now. God is beckoning us to wait for the best way – the timing of His seasons. The world says to grab the fruit right now while it is still green (which is the fruit of anxiety and lack of trust in God’s goodness). God says to watch and wait and trust the ripening process. Be a fool in the world’s eyes and trust Him. His way will prove wise in the end. Very, very wise (and wonderfully glorious) in the end.

Do not be anxious. God is good. He sees your desires. He gave them to you! He knows what you want and need. He created you! He is all about customizing love stories specific to His kiddies. He knows you, intimately. Rest. Trust. Be not anxious. And enjoy the learning process in this season,WHATEVER the outcome. He is the best author, no question. His leadership is completely trustworthy.

So let us approach the throne of God with confidence and fling ourselves fully on the altar of trust.

It’s a good place.

 

Alison Lam has recently moved back to her homeland, Canada, after many years in full-time missions and ministry in New Zealand and other nations. Currently, she is on a sabbatical of sorts, fumbling imperfectly through the learning process of what it means to rest in her secure identity as a beloved daughter of God, not being defined by ministry titles or roles, or the opinions of others. She believes that the human heart thrives in the garden of vulnerable expression, so you will find her writing openly and honestly at http://alisonlam.com or regularly sending out encouraging and challenging tweets to live a life of love on Twitter: @alisonjoyful