Hey, friends!
Thanks again for joining me on this journey as I blog through the book, Praying for Your Future Husband, by Robin Jones Gunn and Tricia Goyer.
For this post, we'll be studying chapter 3!
Chapter 3: Pray He will be a God Lover
Robin lives in Hawai'i and she shares in this chapter that there are apparently over 60 words to describe wind in the Hawaiian language. I never knew this! Wow! She mentions two in particular: one which means a light "scattering flowers" wind and another which is quite different - "canoe-eating" wind.
Robin shares her wish that our English language had more words for the different meanings of love.
She then describes an example of this very thing in her life. She was 15 years old when a guy told her that he loved her for the first time. And he said it on the very first day he met her. (Umm...red flag right there!). Anyways, his name was Davey, he was 16, and they met at a church youth group event. At the end of the day, he wrote down her phone number on his hand and as she drove away in the van with the other girls, he shouted after her, "I love you! I'll call you!"
He did call - every night for a couple weeks. And then, the calls slowly stopped until he never called her again. Robin didn't seem too scarred by it. I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt her (hopefully). She writes that while his love might have been sincere in the moment, it wasn't lasting. It was like a "scattering flowers" sort-of love. She goes on to write that "real, true, lasting love isn't rooted in emotions. True love comes from God's heart" (p. 29).
This story highlights an important point. We can get all excited about love when someone shows interest in us, yet then it doesn't last. We can be disappointed by a man. At the same time, we can also be very blessed by a man's affections for us.
However, as wonderful as it could ever be, God's love will ALWAYS be greater. God's love for each of us is "a passionate, 'canoe-eating,' life-changing, lay-down-His-life-for-you sort of love" (p. 29). And God commands us to respond to His love by loving Him in return. We love because He FIRST loved us (1 John 4:19).
Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. When you love God, you are then able to love your neighbor as yourself. Robin points out the order: first, we are commanded to love God and then, out of His love for us and our love for Him, we are enabled to truly love others. In order for our earthly love stories to flourish, we must first be rooted in the love of God. Wow, that's so good!
Tricia then starts her section of the chapter and shares how she got her first kiss when she was 13 years old. His name was Steven and afterwards, Tricia began spending all of her time with him. She hadn't wanted to sleep with him, but she rationalized that all of her favorite movie characters did that with their boyfriends, so why shouldn't she? Plus, she didn't want to lose him and she thought "if I gave Steven everything he wanted, we would stay together forever" (p. 31). Yet before the summer ended, her dream to be with Steven forever was dashed forever; his family was moving away.
I cannot imagine the kind of pain young Tricia must have been feeling right then. And at only 13 years old! What's so amazing is that she writes that she didn't know it all then, but God was pursuing her in her brokenness and wanting to have a relationship with her even when it felt like her heart would never be whole again. Amen! No matter what, God is always reaching out to us in His love that makes us whole, His Truth that sets us free, and His grace that allows us to believe in His love and Truth.
Tricia and Robin wrote out a list of things to specifically pray for regarding our future husband and his love for God, as well as for ourselves. Check it out and begin to pray these things for your future husband:
Ask Jesus to help you break emotional and physical bonds with any guys to whom you have given yourself in the past. Jesus wants to be the One you love with your whole heart.
Ask Jesus to help your future husband break off and be free of all emotional and physical bonds he has with old girlfriends.
Pray that both of you will set your hearts and your affections fully on the Lord.
Pray that both of you recognize that God is the Relentless Lover and that He wants your lives to be rooted in Him (p. 33).
During this series, I'll be concluding each blog post with a prayer that I've written. Read their book to see the prayers Robin and Tricia have written for your future husband. Let's pray that our future husbands will love God with all they are:
Dear Heavenly Father,
What a beautiful adventure it is following Jesus! :) Thank You for all of the blessings You have given me - from the smallest things like sunshine to flowers blooming to friends and family to Your great love for me. I pray in Jesus' name that You would capture my future husband's heart with Your love. Let him know Your amazing love for him and let it rock his life! If he is giving away parts of who he is to someone else, show him Your better way and heal him from past relationships. Give him clarity and wisdom to make choices that please You. I pray the same for myself. Give me the strength by the power of Your Holy Spirit to stand up for Your Truth and my convictions for Your glory. Where we need forgiveness, God please forgive us. Where we need healing, God please heal us. Where we need the knowledge of Your love, show us the Truth. Your Word says in 1 John 3:16 that "This is how we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us." If we ever question or doubt Your love, turn our eyes to Jesus and show us again how far You went to tell us that You love us. Let us both walk in the light and meet each other walking on the narrow road, amazed at Your gracious love and Your perfect ways. Above anyone or anything else, let us love You, Father. Let Your opinion of us matter the most to us. Let Your Truth speak louder than everything else. Let Your glory shine through our lives. Teach us how to love You with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength so that one day, we can love each other, rooted in Your love. Thank You for hearing and answering our prayers and thank You for always working everything for good when we love You. We know that true love for You is obedience. Show us how to walk in obedience in every area of our lives and how to honor You with all we are. We love You! In Jesus' name, Amen.
Thank you, friends! This is a 12-part series and I plan to post every Thursday. See you next week!
You’re so loved and cherished by Jesus!
Colleen
P.S. I just heard this song for the first time tonight and it was so beautiful I had to share! :)