Part 1 – Delight in The Lord
“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.” –Isaiah 61:10
“I was wondering if you might be interested in chasing Jesus with me?”
Wow, when my sweet young friend Maddie told me that Vincent had just asked her that question, my heart swelled with hopeful expectation for her. After months of the deliberate focus off of guys and onto her first love, Jesus, it seemed almost surreal that a young man she had just recently met at church would offer such a proposal.
She said yes.
Well yeah, any single woman in love with Jesus would love to hear such words from a tall, gentle, kind and handsome single man.
Next, he made his intentions even clearer…
…not interested in the dating game
…looking for a future wife
…let’s set Godly boundaries now
What?!! When Maddie told me this, it was if God was saying, “You see, I am true to my word. ‘Delight in Me and I will give you the desires of your heart'”!
Maddie had a God-designed desire. One that He shaped and placed in her heart. One that would bring Him glory. To one day be married to a man who loved Jesus and that would love, protect and honor her like Jesus loves, protects and honors His bride…the church.
Sound a bit old fashioned?
Well, yes, it is very old fashioned because it was fashioned by God himself.
“The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:8
“So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
The man said,
‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called “woman,” for she was taken out of man.’
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Genesis 2:21-24
Vincent and Maddie began to immediately fall in love with each other.
I had experienced mutual love at first sight when my husband, Brooks, and I met 37 years ago. We are two of the few fortunate who experience that breathtaking love that makes us feel as if we have found THE ONE. It is difficult to translate into words but when we are with our ONE, we feel safe, at ease, and home.
So when Maddie told me a few weeks later that she and Vincent were already looking at future dates for a wedding, I was not surprised. I understood that unexplainable and overwhelming sense that she and Vincent were experiencing…that they just knew that they knew, “they had found THE ONE whom their soul loved”!
From the outside, it may have seemed as if it happened very fast, this answer to prayer for two lovely young people, but I knew better. You might say that my dear sweet young friend had more than her fair share of struggles; however, that is only true when you leave God out of the equation.
Because of her struggles, she sought after healthier life choices, healthier relationships, deeper Jesus-centered friendships with women like myself, and most importantly, she sought the Lord. Like the rest of us, she was not perfect, life was still hard, but she was growing every day and learning to trust God more and more in the midst of the not knowing. In the process, she was experiencing healing and freedom in living for Jesus instead of living for what people might think of her if she did not conform to the norm.
One of the main truths that God kept bringing up between us was that He wants us to live with total faith in Him, to let go of our own plans and desires for good things and trust Him to bring about His best plans in our lives.
“And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” -Hebrews 11:6
Although people are often untrustworthy and hurt one another, our God is not like that. He is totally trustworthy and good. It was Maddie’s choice to trust, to let go and to let God be God. Only a few months later, the greatest desire she had laid down came literally walking into her life at church – her future spouse, Vincent.
“Oh my Lord, how wonderful are Your works…and how my heart rejoices in knowing that You created each of us with such wonderful plans in store for us. A future full of hope, plans to bless and not to harm us!"
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