Unquenchable Love

This is one of those days when it's really hard to get my thoughts together, so bear with me through this. Something that's been big on my heart lately but especially this last week has been love and marriage.

Now, before I go on, I understand that a lot of people (maybe even you) tune out when you hear or see those words. I believe such a negative view has been put on marriage by this world; by the way we live today, by the families that have been torn apart. But I'm not talking about that “I'll love you ‘til I get tired of you and move on” type love that is so prominent in movies and media, but the way God Himself says that we should love. 

I look at verses like 1 Cor. 13, Eph 5:22-33 and read Song of Songs and I realize something. This love has guts. The love the Bible talks about has nothing weak or wimpy about it! It's passionate and moving. Wow. How beautiful God meant for it to be! Especially with husband and wife. A reflection of Christ and the church right here on earth... echoes of Eden. It blows my mind to think about it. To worship God, serve others, have adventures, do life with and grow old with my best friend. Someone God made just for me. What a privilege! To think, the love that my Savior has for me, His pursuit and jealousy of me is meant to be reflected in marriage. (I could go on and on about this forever, but instead, I'll just encourage you to read Captivating or Wild at Heart by John and Stasi Eldridge!)

My prayer for this season of my life, this season of waiting, is that God molds me and shapes me into all that my future husband deserves. Because I know he's going to be incredible. He's got to be... God knows me better than I know myself, so Who better to know the perfect person perfect for me? I also pray that God gives me wisdom and His perspective on things. (Perspective is something else big on my heart, but that's for another time.) I need to pray for my future spouse even though I don’t know who he is. As Jimmy Evans said, "A man is a reflection of the god they choose to serve; a woman is a reflection of the man they choose." I want God to choose my spouse for me and I want to be sensitive to what He tells me, because I want to reflect my Jesus. I don't know who my future husband is, but I know this: I love him, and He is madly in love with Jesus, like me.

But above all, I need to always be seeking God on deeper and deeper levels. He is the epitome of love. What would I be but nothing without Him? He is everything. As I grow closer and closer to Him, and rest in the fact that He holds my future, He's going to work all things together for the good. I want to just enjoy the journey, every aspect of life. With Jesus as the lover of my soul, He will give me strength to wait through loneliness and strength to grow in character.

 Place me like a seal over your heart,
   like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
   its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
   like a mighty flame.
Many waters cannot quench love;
   rivers cannot sweep it away.
--Song of Songs 8:6-7

Make haste, my beloved...