It may surprise you, then, to learn that one moment is consistently chosen over any other. According to an exhaustive survey by the “Lucado and Associates” research group (conducted over a period of five minutes involving three hallway chats and several good guesses, margin of error 99 percent), there is one event treasured over all others: the entrance of the bride. The organ plays, her mom stands, and the audience jumps to its feet. Even the bridesmaids release a sigh. Why, only minutes before they saw her festooned with curlers and heard her asking for lipstick. But now look at her; from the garland tiara to the satin slippers, she is Cinderella at the ball. We, the peasants, lean forward and gasp. We love the arrival of the bride.

But not nearly as much as Jesus does.

Christ longs to see his bride. His Father has circled the date on the calendar of heaven. The groom is preparing a mansion. Heaven is abuzz with wedding fever. Scripture can’t stop talking about the big event!

“The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son” (Matt. 22:2 nkjv).

“The kingdom of heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went to wait for the bridegroom” (Matt. 25:1 ncv).

“[Jesus] died so that he could give the church to himself like a bride in all her beauty . . .” (Eph. 5:27 ncv).

“The Marriage of the Lamb has come; his Wife has made herself ready. She was given a bridal gown of bright and shining linen . . .” (Rev. 19:7–8 msg).

Look at this language: marriage, bridesmaids, bridegroom, bride in all her beauty, bridal gown. Are we reading the Bible or a bridal magazine? Why does Scripture persist in describing the great day as a wedding day?

The answer comes quickly, doesn’t it? Something happens at a wedding that happens on no other day, in no other event. The intimacy, romance, physical union, complete surrender. Our union with Jesus is not one of master/slave or creator/created. It is husband/wife. Our arrival in heaven is understood not as a takeover, merger, or amalgamation, but as a wedding between Christ and his bride, the church.

Plans are underway for a heavenly wedding. The groom is Christ. The bride is the church.

In the days of Jesus, it fell to the groom to pursue the bride. She might glance as he passed by, she might smile as he turned, but any initiative for marriage was always taken by the groom. As much as she might long for him, she had no hope of a wedding unless he took the first step.

Neither do we. Even if we had the charm to entice heaven, we don’t know the phone number. If we have any hope of standing on the altar, God must make the call. And he did! He took the first step. He left his house and came to ours. “It is not our love for God, it is God’s love for us in sending his Son to be the way to take away our sins” (1 John 4:10).

Jesus is romancing us. Can he exist without us? Of course, but he doesn’t want to. He is smitten, captivated, head-over-heels enchanted with us. He is going to do whatever it takes to win our affection.

In the first century, the groom was required to give money to the father of the bride. The measure of his love was seen in the price he was willing to pay. The measure of Jesus’ love is seen in the same.

“You were bought, not with something that ruins like gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, who was like a pure and perfect lamb” (1 Pet. 1:18, NCV).

“You do not belong to yourselves, because you were bought by God for a price” (1 Cor. 6:19–20 ncv).

Do you want to know how much you matter to Jesus? Find your answer in the blood on the cross. He’d rather die than have heaven without you. So, he did.

Which takes me back to our opening question. What is your favorite wedding moment? Most people select the moment they see the bride. My answer is the moment the groom sees his bride. 

As the wedding officiant, I’ve waited backstage with him. By this point, his shirt is sweat soaked. He tugs on his collar. His groomsmen jokingly told him to escape, and he may have given the idea serious thought. But now here he stands and here she comes. When he sees her, I sneak a peek at him. His eyes widen. His smile broadens. He takes a deep breath. And I can read his thoughts: I wouldn’t be anywhere else.

Such will be the thoughts of Jesus when he sees his church. His redeemed saints. His children. His bride. The family for whom he died. The saints with whom he will reign. Clothed in pure grace. From the wreath in her hair to the clouds at her feet, she is royal; she is his princess. “As a man rejoices over his new wife, so your God will rejoice over you” (Isa. 62:5).

BIO:

Max Lucado a pastor, speaker and best-selling author with more than 150 million products in print. His latest book is What Happens Next: A Traveler’s Guide Through the End of This Age (August 2024, Thomas Nelson). He has been pastoring in San Antonio at Oak Hills Church since 1988. Find more at MaxLucado.com 

The post Favorite Wedding Moment first appeared on Live Original.

Competitive by nature, I wanted to win probably more than I cared to admit. There was one problem: my stubborn self refused to wear goggles, giving my sister an obvious advantage over me. As much as I desired to win and find all the pennies, without the proper eyewear, I would just drift around picking up any blurry speck I could find.

Without the proper equipment for the game, my vision would always be impaired, impacting my ability to see clearly and participate well.

But the penny game isn’t the only area of life where seeing well matters. In our spiritual lives, we need a clear view of God to start to let Him into our lives to love us, care for us, and redeem us as His daughters. And a clear view of God starts with knowing more about who he is and what He’s like.

1. W. Tozer clearly explains these qualities, or attributes of God as things about God that are not only true, but also ones that we can know because He has revealed them to us:

“What is God like? What kind of God is He? How may we expect Him to act toward us and toward all created things? Such questions are not merely academic. They touch the far-in reaches of the human spirit, and their answers affect life and character and destiny.”

Today, I’d love to look at God’s love together.

The word love is often one that we neglect and misuse. I don’t know about you, but I’ve actually had my heart broken by people who said they really loved me. In a sense, love has been dragged through the mud at times in my life. My guess is that in one way or another, you can relate. That is why it is absolutely crucial that we understand what it means when we say God is the root and the essence of the true version of love.

One of the greatest metaphors in all of Scripture for the Father’s love is found in Luke 15. In short, a father has two sons. One son demands his inheritance. He runs away, uses it, and squanders everything he’s been given. Ashamed and downcast, he musters up enough courage to return home and try and convince his dad to at least let him back into the home, even if as a servant. Let’s pick up at the moment of his return:

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” And they began to celebrate. (Luke 15:20–24)

So many people read this and focus only on the prodigal son. But this story is about so much more. A major theme in it is the father and how he demonstrates God’s love.

The father would have been wearing a long, heavy robe with multiple layers. Not only that, but it was seen as disgraceful for a man of status to run like we see in this parable. But this father wasn’t just any father. He was one who had abundant grace and love toward those who were his own. He deeply desired his son to return, even if the son didn’t believe his father wanted him to. This is love.

Let’s look at the end of the story when his older brother finds out the younger brother has returned.

“He was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!” And he said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.” (Luke 15:28–32)

What does this show us about God the Father’s love?

God’s love is not contingent on what we do or don’t do. For the son who returned home full of shame and regret, everything the father had was his. For the son who never departed from him, everything the father had was also his. This is the Father’s love—filled with reckless abandon for those He calls His own.

After my dad died at 15 years old to liver cancer, there was a shame that haunted me. At fifteen, I had no idea how to watch someone I love die or how to even be around him. I found myself being completely emotionally shut off toward him out of a place of deep sadness and fear of losing him. On top of all that, because I wasn’t able to make it to him in time before he went into a coma, I never got to tell him how much I loved him and that he was a good dad.

With him gone, the daunting reality that I would never get to tell him these truths caused pain in the deepest parts of my being. To the point where I didn’t know if I would be able to live the rest of my life knowing that I had blown it in his last days. The enemy attacked me hard with this lie and I lived every day in despair and regret.

About a month went by as I walked in this specific pain. One morning around that time, I woke up and found myself physically unable to get out of bed. The grief was attacking every part of my body and I had no strength to go on another day. My mom allowed me to stay home that day from school and I quickly drifted back to sleep. I woke up around noon, figured I should try and get up and eat something, and stumbled to the door. I opened the door, looked down, and saw a letter sealed with an envelope with my name on it. I immediately recognized the handwriting—my dad’s. Unknown to me that he even wrote me a letter, I was met with nerves, excitement, and fear. What will he say? Will he be disappointed in me as a daughter over how I handled the months leading up to his death? I made my way downstairs and slowly opened the letter and braced myself for whatever it might say.

The letter read: “Morgan, if you are reading this, I have died and am now in Heaven with God.” What followed shook me to my core:

I want you to know that I know how much you truly loved me.

Did I read that right? I read it again. And again. And again. Did he really just say that he knew how much I loved him? What I was expecting was for him to say that he loved me. But he knew I already knew that. What he somehow knew was what I would truly struggle with: the fear of him not knowing my love for him. In that moment, chains broke. God freed me from the one lie that I would have believed for the rest of my life.

A lie that could have broken me.
A lie that could have made me take my life.
A lie that would have held me back from freedom.

That day, just like the prodigal son and the older brother, I learned that God’s love for us will never be contingent on our performance or perfection. It was in our inability to perform or be perfect that Christ died for us.

I have heard it said that salvation is free, but surrender is costly. Will you surrender even the darkest places to the Father who is eager to pour out His goodness, immanence, and love onto you as His beloved?

All you have to do is allow the Father to love you and respond with loving Him back. When we learn to be loved, everything else will follow.

As I think back to that nostalgic summertime pool game, I like to think of those pennies as attributes of God. All around us, clear for us to see, and ready for discovering if we have the proper equipment. But instead of goggles, God pours out His Word, His Spirit, and His Son—all helping us to see the truth that He is full of love, He pours out His love, and He is love.

Morgan Krueger is a Jesus follower, wife, mother, and author who found her voice connecting with women seeking freedom from the brokenness of past shame. Her first book, Goodbye Hiding, Hello Freedom: Trading Your Shame for Redemption in Jesus, is out now. In her downtime, you can find Morgan enjoying the significance of the mundane, including spending time with her two sons, encouraging women through words and watching British baking shows with her husband, Ryan, in Franklin, TN. You can connect with her on Instagram @morganwkrueger and at morgankrueger.com.

The post A Father’s Love Letter first appeared on Live Original.

Amanda and I had followed God’s call to plant a church in Indianapolis, Resonate Church, exactly four years before – yet national news outlets were now broadcasting our family‘s tragedy. As shock morphed into overwhelming grief, I stepped with my toddler son Weston into an uncertain future without Amanda.

Over the past nine years, God’s mercies have been new every morning. And one of the greatest mercies goes by the name of Kristi.

It was late 2016, almost a full year since Amanda had passed away, and I had just started writing a book – a memoir. I had asked God to help me see his hand of redemption in my story, and the process of putting emotions and memories to paper was bringing me a lot of healing. I even found myself wondering if I was healthy enough for God to bring love my way again. The odds were not in my favor – my current life would require a truly unique woman, one who loved God, loved my son Weston, loved me, loved our church, and even loved Amanda. I left the idea in God’s hands.

That evening, after a twelve-hour day of writing, I headed to the gym to decompress. The owner of the gym had kindly given me a key so I could break a little sweat at odd hours when I wasn’t writing. That night I arrived just as the last class of the evening was finishing up. As providence would have it, Kristi was in that class.

I had noticed Kristi at the gym and around church over the last few months, but we hadn’t exchanged more than a dozen words. She had caught my attention from day one, but she seemed to be avoiding me like the plague. I decided this was the moment, so I worked up the courage to engage in conversation.

“Hey!” I said, trying (to no avail) to play it cool. “You’ve been coming to Resonate church for like four months now, and I know almost nothing about you.” And, to keep it pastoral, I added, “What’s your story? How did you come to know the Lord?”

For the next thirty minutes, we stood there as she regaled me on her upbringing and past. Out of all that she shared,

I homed in on the four years she spent studying abroad and on the mission fields in Mexico, Cambodia, and Brazil. “So that’s why you’ve been serving in Resonate’s inner-city project,” I commented. “You have a heart for missions.”

“Yeah,” she said with some hesitation, “but also my family lives in that area.”

“Wait, by choice?” I blurted out, thinking of the crime rate in that part of the city.

“Yeah.” She kept her poise. “My stepdad and mom feel called to that area as their life’s ministry. That was one reason I chose to attend Resonate. The church’s ForIndy initiative in the inner city? It’s the kind of work our family has prayed to see for years.”

“Wow. That’s amazing!” I said. “Amanda and I used to pray for that neighborhood when we ran by while training for half marathons. Ever since Amanda passed, I’ve felt this huge burden for that area of the city. Much of what we do as a church has come out of our story and the burden it’s placed on me.”

“I’m connected  to your story in some other ways,” Kristi said, “but I don’t think you’ll want me to tell you that.” She shuffled her feet a little and looked around the room.

“What is it?” I was intrigued and a little apprehensive, especially at how awkward she had suddenly become.

“Well. Um. Davey, my stepdad is a chaplain for the Marion County prison system.” She paused to let what she said set in for a second. “And he has regular conversations with the men that killed Amanda.”

I felt all the blood rush out of my face and the room began to spin. “What?!” I was dumbfounded. What are you doing, God? The girl I’ve been interested in already has a close connection with my story? I was at the gym to decompress after a long day – the same day I had asked the Lord to show me the redemption in my story. And Kristi tells me this?

Fast forward through several months of dating, and we were ready to see how our families felt about this: hers, mine, and Amanda’s. We spent a week with Amanda’s family in Elkhart, Indiana, followed by a week with my family in North Carolina. Kristi’s family was in Indy, so we’d already had some time to talk with them. We knew those two weeks were make-or-break for us. We returned to Indy reassured and started talking about a future together.

On November 8, 2017, almost exactly two years after Amanda’s death, I got down on one knee and asked Kristi to be my wife.

It was important to Kristi that we have a small, private, and quiet wedding. You see, although she had a very loving an

d involved stepdad, her biological father hadn’t been in her life for years. Because he struggled with

serious mental illness, Kristi had often feared for her safety. She hadn’t seen her birthfather since he walked out on the family years ago, but the thought of being walked down a wedding aisle touched more than a few childhood wounds.

Meanwhile, I was aware that dozens of people had been personally involved in my journey, both with Amanda and sinc

e her passing. I couldn’t imagine not having those people present as we celebrated this new chapter of life together. Suddenly a message I had received earlier from the Lord came to mind: My redemption story would usher in Kristi’s as well. I convinced her to go through with a bigger wedding and asked her to trust me with the “walking down the aisle” part.

On a chilly, rainy, magical December day in 2017, we gathered friends and family in a castle – well, a local venue that looked like a castle. Although almost nothing in our stories looked like a fairy tale up to the point, we felt like we were living one that day.

I stood at the front with Brad Cooper, who was officiating the wedding, and waited for the doors to open, knowing that what was about to ensue would have us all in tears. I shifted nervously, hoping that everything would go as planned.

“Claire de Lune” began playing softly. The doors swung open, and everyone stood to their feet. There she was, standing alone, a magnificent beauty, delicately resplendent in a fashionable white gown with lace sleeves, clutching a bouquet of snowy flowers.

I could see the hesitation on Kristi’s face as she began to step forward. Her beloved stepfather, Lee, immediately eased out of the back row to meet her. She smiled and accepted his arm as she walked toward me. About one-third of the way down the aisle, Lee stopped walking and Kristi froze with him. He leaned over, kissed her on the cheek, and whispered in her ear, “This is where I leave you.” Stunned and unsure what to do next, she looked up at me.

At the same moment, Amanda’s father, Phil, stood up and gently took Kristi’s arm. You could almost feel the entire room gasp as people held back tears. Phil walked Kristi the next third of the way until, right on cue, my own father got up from his seat.

My dad escorted Kristi the last few steps until she stood directly in front of me, in all her radiance, and Brad asked, “Who gives this bride to be with this groom?”

“We do,” the three declared in unison from behind Kristi.

It was a storybook moment, and it wasn’t lost on either of us. Tears filled both of our eyes as we looked at each other, two broken puzzle pieces about to fit and stitch our crazy lives together to display to the world a picture of God’s redemption—an unordinary family.

Davey Blackburn is the founder of Nothing is Wasted Ministries which creates resources for those facing trauma, tragedy, and loss. He is the author of Nothing is Wasted: A True Story of Hope, Forgiveness, and Finding Purpose in Pain (July 2024). Davey and Kristi live in Indianapolis with their three kids, Natalia, Weston, and Cohen. Find resources at www.NothingIsWasted.com.

Friend, we hope this encourages you that God is not done writing your story. He can bring redemption and healing into any part of your life!

You can read more of Davey’s inspiring story in his book- Nothing is Wasted: A True Story of Hope, Forgiveness, and Finding Purpose in Pain. 

The post Nothing is Wasted first appeared on Live Original.

But friends, the love that we need most isn’t love that we can give ourselves. The love we need most is love that we can only get from our Creator. The love we need is God.

“So, we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

1 John 4:16

God is love and God created us out of love. What a beautiful truth, too vast for us to comprehend. Love is from God. Love is God. Love is a mission sent by God. Love describes the very heart and the character of God. Not that love is all that God is, but everything that God does, in one way or another, expresses His love for us. His mercy, His grace, His wisdom, His comfort, His sacrifice. All these things and more are beautiful demonstrations of God’s perfect love.

It is natural for our hearts to long for love because we are beings created out of love, but where we are looking for the love that we desire can often be the root of our problems. The world is often looking for love in all the wrong places. We start digging into pampering self-care, self-love affirmation journals, Instagram comment validation, and treat-yourself meals, but we keep coming up empty and wondering why. We rely on our friends and significant others to validate us with their versions of love. But the truth is, nothing on this earth can fill the God-sized hole for love in our hearts. If we want to be loved, we need to be running after Jesus.

Maybe the reason that the world has such a misconstrued idea of love is that so many people in the world haven’t experienced what true love is. Let’s look at the day that defined love. The day that Jesus died. A day that proved love. A day that love Himself was hung on a cross.

“He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.” (Matthew 27:42)

What is demonstrated in the death of Jesus is that love is sacrificial. Jesus knew this fully. He could’ve stepped down from the cross where He was hung, but He demonstrated to a world that so desperately needed to know what love truly is, His definition of it. Sacrificial love comes from the Greek term “agape,” which means to love someone with unselfish passion. “Agape” type of love was the love demonstrated on the cross. Our Father loved us with such an unselfish passion that He sent His one and only Son to be humiliated, mocked, beaten, and ultimately die for our sins. Our sins that didn’t deserve grace. Our lives that didn’t deserve saving. But through the Lord’s sacrificial love, the blood that was shed was done for each one of us that would step foot on this earth. Real love isn’t defined by our love for God but by His love for us as sinners.

After we truly grasp the agape love that was demonstrated on the cross, the love that this world tries to sell doesn’t compare to Christ’s love. Love is not cheap and easy. It’s not instant gratification. Love is not what you decide it to be and not all about you. Love is simply God, and this changes everything for us.

Love took on a whole new meaning when Jesus said, “It is finished” with His last breath. He is our provider and protector, our shepherd and father. He is the purest form of love—sacrificial love. God broke all definitions of love when He sent his son to die for our sins. God’s love isn’t self-centered. It’s not surface-level love. His love isn’t dependent on what we do, achieve, say, or pray. He loves us despite our flaws. He loves us despite our unworthiness. He loves us despite our pride. This world can define love in many ways, but the love it needs most is Jesus and nothing gets better than that.

When we experience God’s love for the first time or experience it again in a whole new way, our life is radically changed. Self-love will never transform us the way Godly love does. People are digging and digging in the world for worth, validation, and love when we should be digging into God’s word and pouring into a relationship with our Father who has all that we need. We can begin to love ourselves best by denying ourselves and picking up our cross to follow Jesus. After saying yes to Jesus, our whole life becomes about love. We are commanded to love because it is our foundation and our mission.

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

(Matthew 22:36-40)

Who are we to love first? The Lord our God. But, Jesus doesn’t stop there. He says that the second commandment is just like it, meaning that they are deeply connected, and that is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Loving God means to love your neighbor, there’s no separating them. These are His commandments, not suggestions. The world will always suggest that we love ourselves first because we deserve it and are worthy, but the Bible commands that we love God and others first. What kind of love is this? Agape love.

“’This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.’”

(John 15:12-13)

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends…wow. I don’t know about you but when I read that the greatest love is demonstrated through laying down my life for someone, I begin to step back in fear because this world convinces us that love is easy and comfortable. But it’s quite the opposite. We are called to deny ourselves to make room for loving others through sacrifice.

Sacrificial love is serving others’ needs rather than serving our own needs.

Sacrificial love pursues what God desires instead of just doing what makes us happy.

Worldly love gets in our way of walking in Godly love. So, let’s set aside our own definitions of love and fully bathe ourselves in the love that God is calling us to walk in and extend to others.

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

(1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Friends can love us. Parents can love us. We can love ourselves. But earthly love is not perfect and will fail us over and over because we are all sinners. The good news is, God is love, and He will never fail us and never fail to love us. His love never fails, it endures forever. It endures in the storms, in the valleys, in the messy times and it endures when we can’t love ourselves. When we walk with Jesus, love looks a lot different, and this couldn’t be a better promise. Be confident in who God made you to be and love the journey that He has you on, but don’t let prideful self-love and the world’s definitions of love stand in the way of fully loving God and others with radical agape love. Because when we deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow Jesus, we enter into the most perfect, beautiful, selfless love that initiates our response of love toward God’s creation and God himself.

You are so loved friends, never forget it!!

Hi friends I’m Carli! I am a Disney enthusiast who loves to dance and can’t say no to coffee. One of my biggest passions is encouraging people in their faith on social media so I would love to connect over on Instagram @beautyyandthebible! 

The post The Love We Need Most first appeared on Live Original.

I vividly remember sitting at the counter of my college house reading and journaling when I had this thought, or rather God planted this thought in my mind. 

I was so tired of feeling sorry for myself for not being in a relationship. I knew that a relationship wouldn’t fill me, but I was acting like I was depleted and deprived because I wasn’t in a relationship. My beliefs were not lining up with my actions. God so lovingly showed me my inconsistencies. I was wasting my thoughts by being overwhelmed with desire for a relationship, so much so it decreased my quality of life. I decided to change my thoughts. I wanted to live everyday like it was my last day of being single. I was going to enjoy it even if somedays I had to force myself to see it as good. One day I would hopefully be in a relationship that would turn into marriage and I would never be single again. I wanted to make myself proud of the way I lived in it and didn’t want to waste what the Lord had me in. If you really stop and think about each day, we have no idea what it holds. It could be the day that changes your life. But instead of waiting on the day that changes everything, I want to live my life freely and confidently not waiting on a day to come. 

As I looked to the positives of singleness, contentment grew within me. I learned how to spend time with Jesus. Not just read my Bible, pray a little, and move on, but ACTUALLY spend time with him and enjoy it! I looked forward to being in His presence every day. I received all the security, acceptance, and love I needed from Him. My heart was slowly aware that the things I desperately wanted, I had in Jesus all along.

As I became more content with my season, the Lord gave me more peace in my heart about the unknowns of my future. He removed the way I idolized a future husband and provided me with deep satisfaction in Him. 

The day I started dating my now husband, I had peace leaving my season of singleness. I knew I had been obedient in learning all the Lord wanted me to grow in. 

I am grateful for my season of singleness because it taught me to be content in every season.

It created a heart posture within me to be satisfied in the Lord rather than my circumstances. Rushing from one season to the next is harmful. It steals the lessons of love, satisfaction, and being fully present with the Lord that He wanted to teach me. 

Being fulfilled by the Lord’s presence then produced satisfaction in the season I’m in now. 

Being single is wonderful, dating is wonderful, engagement and marriage are wonderful! But if you ignore contentment in singleness you will be dissatisfied in dating. You’ll want engagement, and in engagement you’ll want marriage. In marriage you’ll want kids, then you’ll want to be empty nesters. It’s an endless cycle of always wanting the next thing. 

It’s a trap that we can so easily fall into if we do not posture our hearts to be content in our current season.

It can be dangerous to view singleness as a season of waiting because of what it does to our hearts when we label it that way. Waiting can imply that your life is missing something and you are looking to that thing hopeful it will fill whatever is missing in your life. “I’m waiting for God to move in my life.” “I’m waiting for Him to give me an answer on what He wants me to do.” “I’m waiting on Him to give me a boyfriend.” When we “wait” on God to act, move, or provide and it doesn’t happen on our timeline, we view it as a punishment. In reality, we were never actually waiting on God, we were wanting God to move when we say so. 

Sure, you might feel like you are waiting for a boyfriend. But what are you wanting a boyfriend to fix in you? Fix in your life? If you never had a boyfriend, never got married, would you be content with your relationship with the Lord to fill you? 

Instead of waiting on God to give you a boyfriend, be with God in your singleness. There’s so much more at stake than your desire for a relationship. The Lord is forming in you contentment, satisfaction, and a sole desire for His presence to fill. I believe these lessons are best taught in singleness and that’s why the enemy wants us to rush out of it. If we never learn how to be content and satisfied in the Lord we will always look to something or someone else to fill us. This is why singleness is so valuable! You cannot learn that only God can fill you until he is all you have to fill you.

There will be a last day of singleness for you. So, make yourself proud of the way you lived it out! 

Focus your purpose in singleness to be closer to God, to soak in his presence, and learn how to be satisfied where he has placed you.

I promise that when you allow your heart to be satisfied in Jesus, you will lack nothing. The longing for a husband won’t change, but you will be content in where the Lord has you. Your heart’s ability to be content now will cultivate a heart of contentment for every season to come.

So, to my friend that is single today, wondering when and if her husband will ever come into her life: focus on your heart posture. Learn to be satisfied with God in your singleness, its so much more important than having a boyfriend.

Freddie is a recent grad from Auburn University with her masters in clinical mental health counseling and is on staff with LO as a counselor. She loves long walks, spending time with friends and family, and helping people find their confidence in who God made them to be!

Follow Freddie on Instagram: @yourfriend_Freddie 

The post A Content Heart Starts in Singleness first appeared on Live Original.

The post WTG: Our Best Couples Advice first appeared on Live Original.

Question 1: What were some things you did intentionally while you were waiting for each other?

There are tons of people out there waiting for their person and wondering what to do in the process. So, I thought Christian would be the perfect person to answer this one since he has great advice on the topic. Christian said prayer and building a community of guys around him were the two key elements in his season of waiting. In the season before he and I started dating, he was very intentional about spending alone time with God, and having bible study groups and prayer nights. He truly believes that time in his life prepared him for our relationship.

This same idea applies to girls as well. Find good Godly community with other girls who are seeking the same purpose! During that season in Christian’s life, he wasn’t just preparing himself for our relationship. He was becoming the man he wanted to be. He was focusing on the Lord and himself which is so important. You have to have a moment in your life when you’re focusing on who God is and who you are so that when you go into a relationship, you’re a whole person.

I love what I heard said once. They said that whenever two people become one, it’s not fifty-fifty. It’s two becoming one. And so many only have fifty percent to give because they were focusing on other things the whole time and never took the time to know yourself. But whenever both people truly know themselves and are rooted in who God is, two people becoming one make such a strong one.

Question 2: What would you tell your younger self who felt like they would never find the right person for them?

I think I would tell my younger self to just rest and wait. You don’t have to try to figure out who your person is. It’s just going to happen. When you say you have to “find love,” you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself because if you have to find something, then you have to go searching for it. If I’d tried to “find” Christian, I genuinely don’t know if I would’ve found him because I wouldn’t have been looking where he was. I never would’ve thought my husband would be in Seaside, FL, the day I happened to be there on vacation with my friends. I’m so grateful we found each other, but the fact is that we didn’t have to search.

You just have to show up each day with a willing spirit, present yourself in such a way that you’re ready to meet your person, and be in relationship with someone. And when you show up each day like that, you’re positioning yourself in the place to be able to meet your person. I think God makes that intentionally happen. So, I don’t think we have to find our person. I believe God connects your steps to each other.

Question 3: What have you been learning from God recently?

Christian said a lot of times when he thinks about God, he thinks “Father,” “Redeemer,” all these amazing qualities of God. But it recently hit him that God is his Creator. When he prays, it’s to the One who physically created him. All his attributes were created by God. I remember looking out at the ocean on Christian’s and my honeymoon and thinking, “Wow. The God who created the ocean created me.”

And the crazy thing is that when God made the ocean, the stars, and moon, He said it was good. When we look at those things, we think they’re amazing. And then He made us, He said it was good. But when He made man and woman come together, He said it was very good. That is so humbling to think about. And when you look at God as the One who created you, you begin to feel much more confident and loved. It also pushes you to want to further that relationship.

Question 4: Does God speak to you in dreams?

My answer is yes. I would love to share one of these instances with you! Before I tell this story, I want to say that if you’ve never had a dream from the Lord before, that is not a bad thing. That does not mean God’s withholding something from you. There are incredibly spiritual people who have never felt like they had a dream from the Lord. I will say, though, it is something to pray for. I used to hear about this girl who had God dreams and I wanted them so badly. So, I started praying for them and they started happening. It’s not like I have one every night. I probably have one once every three years. The way I can tell that it’s a God dream is when there is a moment in the dream when I feel the Lord speak.

Years ago, my team and I really wanted to go to a conference. At this point, we were hosting tours and gatherings, and decided we wanted to get poured into. Well, we saw the Global Leadership Conference was being hosted in London. So, we bought our tickets as regular attendees. A couple months before we bought our tickets, I had a dream that I was in a green room, which is the room the speakers gather in before an event. In the dream, I was looking at a map of places in the world where revival had broken out in. These places were colored in. Then, Pastor Michael Todd, who I’d never met at that time, walked in the room and looked at the map and said, “This is a divine holy moment.” Right after that, we started singing the song “Set a Fire” and all got down on our knees because the presence of God felt so heavy. I woke up and wrote down the dream.

Months later, the people from the Global Leadership Conference see my name in the sign-up list and reached out asking me to do a Q&A. This was all in March. So, I get on this call with these pastors from London and Nicky and Pippa Gumbel start speaking to me. They said, “I don’t know if you know it but this is our GLOBAL Leadership Conference. So, we’ll have leaders from all over the world representing.” Then Pippa said, “That Monday night of the conference, you’ll be speaking, along with Pastor Mike Todd.” As soon as she said that, I knew it sounded familiar. Like I had lived it before. I went back to November in my book with my dreams, and read out loud to them what it said. They had chills.

Fast forward to May. We’re in the green room and they bring in a map and say, “If this is the dream you had, we’re going to pray into it.” So, we prayed over this dream that revival would happen all around the world. After Pastor Mike and I had preached, Nicky asked me to come back up and pray for an anointing on my generation like never before. The presence of God was so thick in the room and all of a sudden, Mike Todd starts singing “Set a Fire” and everyone is on their knees praising God. This was definitely one of the craziest experiences of my life, and it was undeniably because of the Lord. But when you look at the God of the Bible, God spoke in dreams all the time. So, why wouldn’t He speak to us in dreams?

Isaiah 26:9 says, “My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.”

It’s basically this prayer of longing to see God. Before I go to bed at night, I tell God that my spirit longs to see Him that night. I encourage you to keep a prayer journal by your bed and always write things down if you feel the Lord speaking, whether it be in a dream or any other time.

However, not every dream means something. Both Christian and I have crazy dreams that don’t necessarily mean anything. For instance, you might dream about your biggest fear, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to come true. I dream about losing Christian, but that doesn’t mean I actually will. I have to remind myself not to panic. I don’t think God speaks in fear. We need to have the wisdom to discern what is significant and what’s not.

Question 5: If I want to break a bad habit, where do I start and how do I do that practically?

I used to have the bad habit of being sensitive. My mom used to call me “Sensitive Sally” because it was so extreme. This habit drove me crazy. If someone looked at me wrong or said the wrong thing to me, I would be convinced that they didn’t like me. And I would get so upset about it. I feel like I grew out of that by making the conscious decision to grow thicker skin. Thank God I broke that habit because if I heard all the opinions I get from people now and was still as sensitive as I used to be, it would be terrible.

Let me say this to the person who is sensitive or anxious, you actually can control you. At the end of the day, you are the only person who can choose to change you. So, if there’s something about you that bothers you, fix it. Don’t stay in it. Ask God to help you in doing so.

As far as sinful habits go, Christian had a great take on handling them. He said that at some point, you have to lean into your conviction. And if you’re truly a follower of Christ, you should have conviction.

Hebrews 10:26 says, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left.”

Christian went on to say that though we still struggle with things and battle sin, there’s a difference between habitually sinning and turning from sin. However, if we do sin, we have one as an advocate for us.

“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.” (1 John 2:1)

I asked Christian to address one of the biggest struggles in our generation: pornography. I know his friend group had an incredible breakthrough from this and I wanted him to share. He started by talking about his friend group in college. Week after week, we would ask for prayer over our struggle with pornography and lust. Finally, after a few months, we all asked, “What are we actually going to do about any of this?” We took the initiative to actually do something about it. We began to hold each other accountable and slowly watched each other’s struggles deteriorate. If you struggle with something and don’t make a change, you can get comfortable in it. But the moment you decide to make a change and repent, everything shifts.

For people listening, I think there’s a couple takeaways from Christian’s experience:

1. They held each other accountable as a group. They didn’t try to do it alone.
2. They actually did things to help them stop. It wasn’t just a weekly check-in. They were intentional about holding each other accountable. And they hung out so much as a group.

If you’re walking through something right now that is a sinful habit, I encourage you to get with someone dealing with the same thing and decide today that it will no longer be a struggle. Yes, it is going to try to fight, but y’all will be fighting back. That doesn’t mean that you won’t mess up every now and then, but it is saying that you’re not going to let it own your life. Practice the things you have to put in to play to make sure it goes away. Because when you are fighting a giant like that, you have to know how to fight back.

I pray all this advice speaks to you and meets you where you’re at, friend! xoxo, Sadie

The post Our Best Relationship Advice first appeared on Live Original.

In the Bible we can see God’s deliberate love for us in the intentionality of Him sending His Son to die for us. This was not something that just kind of happened, rather God had designed an intricate beautiful plan to reconcile His creation back to His heart. He created us and loves us, and in our flesh we chose sin, so He had to bridge the gap that was in between us and Him. When Christ came and fulfilled every prophecy, lived a perfect holy life, and took the punishment for our sin on the cross he became a bridge over the gap that sin created. Our acceptance of Him allows us to come back to God despite our sin. This is the gospel, and this is the grandest gesture of active love imaginable. So how does this impact our daily lives and help us to actively love? We follow His example. You can share the gospel with someone every day, sometimes without saying a word. Your life is a reflection of the gospel to everyone you encounter. 

Now this can be difficult because we typically don’t encounter opportunities to lay down our lives for our friends and family literally, but there are ways that we can deliberately love them similarly to how God deliberately loved us. Practically, because I am a college student, this may look different in your life than in mine. However, I know that some people who read this may be looking for realistic ways to love their friends in college so here are some of the ways that I attempt to exercise this active love that God has shown me.

• Sticker Notes: Now this may sound silly, but my friends and I all invested in stickers and began writing little notes to each other with fun stickers that reminded us of each other. Each note was like a token of intentionality. After I wrote to my friends, I had so many extra stickers so I thought why limit myself to just my close friends, why not give these to everyone? So I started writing them to a lot of people, even people I had barely talked to, and it created opportunities for me to become better friends with them, and hopefully make their day more encouraging. 
• Turn Down Service: This works the best if you have roommates. Personally I live in a house with a lot of girls, so when people are coming home late I try to clean their room and un-make their bed so it is ready for them to sleep in when they get home. The same goes for if they get up early for something, I will make their bed so when they get back they don’t have to. It’s very simple, but when my friends do it for me I feel very loved and cared for. Reducing another person’s to-do list, even by one thing, is impactful. 

• Matching Excitement: This is more of a state of mind, but I think one of the most damaging things that someone can do in a relationship is “yuck someone’s yum”. What I mean by this is that, I try to never be the person that makes anyone feel bad or lame for something they are passionate about. Instead, my friends and I typically attempt to match that excitement with each other. For example, two of my best friends are very musical and love to play guitar and piano, and instead of not engaging when they talk about it or play, I found my old guitar and asked them to teach me. Now we all play together all the time, because instead of putting them down I tried to build them up and asked them to help me. People love an excuse to talk about what they are passionate about, so matching others’ excitement shows them that you care and want to hear about what things have captured their heart. Not only that, but then if I am given the chance to talk about what I am passionate about, I have an opportunity to tell them about my faith.

In addition to God loving us deliberately, He loves us vigorously, powerfully, eagerly, and enthusiastically. The best example I can think of where we see this in the Bible is in the sending of Jesus to earth. We got to see how He eagerly loved the people around Him in His everyday life. In John 4, the story of the Samaritan woman at the well is told. At this time women and Samaritans were outcasts already, on top of the fact that this woman was at the well around noon (a time that no one went to draw water because of the heat) which meant that she was avoiding other women in her own town, making her an outcast of the outcasts. Yet, Jesus made the decision to take a harder trip to his destination to ensure that He would meet this woman at the well. He was eager to love her, eager to quench her spiritual thirst with living water, eager to remind her that she can’t earn the love of God but it is freely given to her despite what she has done. She was the first person that He told that He was the Messiah. What a picture of enthusiastic and vigorous love.

God wants us to love people this way, so that we can experience giving active love to others the same way that He gives it to us. Life is so much fuller when you go all out in love. What is the benefit of censored love except safety, and is it better to be safe or to experience the fullness of love which includes vulnerability? For example, my friends and I decided to do secret santa for Christmas this year, but with a twist. We called it surprise Christmas and we started this in August. As months went on we accumulated little trinkets and gifts for the person we had drawn, and then we decided on which week to give the presents to each other. Instead of exchanging gifts all at the same time, we were allowed to choose any time, day or night, to surprise our person with their gift. I can’t explain how much this leveled up the gift giving experience, and it showcased everyone’s excitement for each other. It was an idea that made us all extremely more excited to give than to receive, and it propelled us to love each other better because for five months we were listening intently to what the other person needed. It was one of the best experiences of eager and enthusiastic love I have ever had.

Active love is not an easy calling, but it is who Christ is. If I am attempting to use my life to make Christ more known, then active love is something I want to be engaging in daily. With that being said, I hope you feel challenged and encouraged with the idea of actively loving the people God has put in your life. And as a reminder you yourself are actively, eagerly, deliberately, and intentionally loved by the creator of the universe. He calls us heirs to His kingdom, and we don’t have to do anything but accept his love in the form of Christ! Now let’s go love people! 

Macy is a college student who is involved in greek life and Doulos which is a greek life ministry. She is also a spicy uno enthusiast, a lover of marine life and chocolate covered gummy bears, and a friend.

The post Active Love first appeared on Live Original.

da·ting (verb)

DEFINITION: The act of being in a relationship that brings out the best version of you while also learning selflessness, humility, and love.

Your girl Sadie Rob sharing here. The two biggest aspects to entering into a relationship is knowing when you are ready to date and being able to identify when it is the right relationship.

How do you know when you are ready to date?

This answer is coming from a humble place, because had I known this when I was 16, I would have saved people and myself from a lot of heartache. Looking back, I am truly sad to say that out of my brokenness, I would get into relationships because I “needed” something. Of course, at the time, I didn’t realize my impure motives. I never intentionally thought, going into a relationship, that I was trying to “get something” out of anyone, but I can see now that I was searching for something.

I needed self-confidence, reassurance, affirmation, healing, someone to make me feel less lonely, someone to redeem the past. I went into every relationship needing something that only Jesus could give me. When it ended it left me feeling emptier than when I started. I think you are ready to date when you find contentment in Christ and don’t actually “need anything from anyone.” You have to realize that they cannot and will not give you what only Jesus can give you.

How do you know when it is the right relationship?

First off, I want to touch on how you can know you’re in a WRONG relationship. One good clue is to look at who you have become since dating that person. If you have lost your personality, your peace, your joy, your confidence, your purity and the desires inside of you, then it’s probably time to lose the relationship and find yourself again in Christ. The wrong relationship will produce the wrong fruit. If you have to change who you are, it’s not the right relationship.

The right relationship will produce the right fruit in you and through you. It will bless you, not take from you. 

Ask yourself questions like: “Since the beginning of this relationship, have I seen the fruit of Jesus in my life?” No one is going to be perfect, so don’t look for perfect, but you can be and should be HEALTHY!

The other thing is when you realize the one you are dating is really “the one”, it won’t be some magical moment with bells ringing and pixie dust falling from the sky and seven shooting stars flashing across the sky like a July 4th celebration. You won’t get a “sign” written by the universe that he is the one. I think so many times we get caught up in looking for a sign.

The looking causes us to miss the actual magic of how God brings two people together. How he creates one to complete the other. Stop looking for crazy signs around you and look in front of you. That way you can see that what you prayed for is standing right there. Look inside of you and realize who you have become by the power and blessing of partnering with who God has created.

If you happen to find this right relationship in college, what a blessing! If not, God is preparing you for something that only a season of singleness can bring about. Those years are sweet if you can have the eyes to see it through that lens. Don’t wish it away.

TRUTH: Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

How can you apply this scripture to your perspective of dating?1. What are you looking for in a dating relationship?

2. What could God be wanting to show you in your season of singleness or dating?

3. What are some ways you could start preparing for the person God has for you?

The post Confidence In College: Dating first appeared on Live Original.

Now, enjoy today’s post from Stacie 🙂 

______________

Independence has been a battle cry and a point of pride for me for as long as I can remember. It has shaped who I thought I was and how I viewed my relationship with others. I thought because my dad was an alcoholic and absent from my life that I needed to be independent. Maybe you’ve had someone like that in your life. Because time and time again he or she wasn’t there when you needed them or better yet, when you wanted them, you made sure you would work to become someone who didn’t need anything from anyone. You believed you could be self-sufficient for physical needs, emotional needs and relational needs. You believed that you could take care of you! But the truth is that has turned out to be a false reality.  Turns out it’s a lie. As much as we’d like to believe that we’re “Miss independent, Miss self-sufficient…” the truth is, we’re not. As humans, we need a lot of things that, no matter how hard we try, we can’t provide all by ourselves.

We need air.

We need water.

We need nourishment.

We need love.

We need protection.

We need friendship.

We need purpose.

Over time and because of God’s grace, I have learned that I am not independent but instead, completely dependent. We were actually created to depend on the only one who actually is independent.

The amazing thing about God is that He is not human. He’s not even a super-human, He is wholly “other.” God does not need anything or anyone. He is completely self-sufficient. He is completely independent. He doesn’t need anything from creation because He created everything from nothing.

In Acts 17:24-28 Paul says it like this:

²⁴ “The God who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵ Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶ From one man He made every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’”

Knowing that God is completely independent and needs nothing and no one gives us security and hope that He can’t and won’t be corrupted. God does not function out of necessity. He doesn’t need to do anything for the sake of survival, to fulfill a need or out of bondage to anyone. He has no outside influence which means he is free to be himself. The good news is God to his core is good. Being good and being free means he will do what is perfect and right and good all of the time.

Knowing that God needs nothing form us reveals how much He loves us. He does not need our love but He has given us love. He does not need our existence but He has breathed life into us. He does not need our work here on this earth but he has chosen to have us participate in His grand design. He does not need our worship but he has given us voice and song. He doesn’t need anything that we create but he has given us the capacity to think, design and build.

If God does not need us then why did He create us? Paul tells us that He has created each of us uniquely and purposefully in our time and place so that we would know Him. Isn’t it freeing to know that God does not need you and that the only reason you were created is that you would get to know Him? That is so freeing! Many of us carry the burden on our shoulders of “working” for God. We feel that we will disappoint Him if we don’t perform. We worry that we’re not fulfilling our purpose because we’re not doing whatever it is we feel we should be doing. The truth that Paul tells us here is that God created man simply to know Him. You were created to know God. So you can stop striving, working, looking for your purpose! Your purpose is to know God. You were created by a good God who only wants your heart.

He is so good that not only did He give us life, He gives us Himself.

Out of His mercy He’s given Himself to us. He’s given us His word so that we can know His character and the essence of who He is. He’s given us the Holy Spirit so that we can hear His call in our hearts. He has gifted us eternity with Him through the life, death and resurrection of our savior Jesus Christ. He is not an unknown god but instead, a God that can be known! Paul tells us that He is not far from you. He delights in you as His child. He loves you. He has chosen you. He created you so that you would know Him. He does not need you to be or do anything, He just wants a relationship with you so take a rest from the striving and just get to know your God.

You don’t need to be independent. What you actually need is to be completely dependent on the only one who fully knows you, the only one who is absolutely reliable and the only one who is always good because He is absolutely independent.

The post Dependent On God first appeared on Live Original.