by
Andrea Renee Cox
Two
weeks ago, I told you that I’m currently in a season of waiting (read Part One).
Today, I’m digging deeper on that subject and sharing more of how God’s been working
with me on learning to be content.
On
Sunday, February 8, there was a moment that my heart screamed out, “Ask Him
again!” So I opened my journal, where I sometimes write out my prayers, planning
on requesting yet again that my husband-to-be be allowed to come into my life.
What I ended up asking took me by surprise, but it was more than that. Right
before I touched the pen to the page, my mind and heart collided with the Holy
Spirit. He impressed upon me (though I heard no audible words), “This is a
moment to choose contentment.” As I started wondering how to do that, my mind
grasped what the Spirit meant. Here are the words I wrote:
“Father, may I gain contentment? My human desire is for my
husband-to-be to come into my life. But my spirit desires for more. Contentment
with EVERY season. Father, will you please fulfill Your will in my life and
grant me a dose of contentment?”
Making
that choice to ask for what I really need
instead of what I really want wasn’t
as difficult as I’d always imagined it would be, nor as hard as it had been at
other times. It took place in a matter of seconds, not the long, drawn-out
minutes of agonizing decision I would have expected. After years of asking for
God’s will to be fulfilled in my life, my heart was finally ready to make the choice
that set my humanness aside and reached out to grasp on to a characteristic
that will carry me through the entirety of my future, whatever that may hold.
A
verse I’d been focusing on that week led up to this life-changing moment.
2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV)
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is
unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
The
entire verse is great, and I’d taken it piece by piece each day since I chose
it to be my fourth verse to memorize this year (learn about Beth Moore’s
Scripture Memory Team for ladies here).
Fix our eyes has been my constant prayer
lately. Sometimes fixing my eyes on the right thing for any given moment is
difficult. It’s important to have God’s help to focus on the proper thing, and
I believe that’s why I was able to choose to ask for contentment that day (and the days since then). He’s
been busy doing the behind the scenes work in my heart and soul, the gritty
work I can’t see being done as I’m struggling to do my part in coming to Him
with a humble spirit and working on the things He’s asked me to do.
Not on what is seen. Well, my
husband-to-be isn’t yet seen in my
life—I haven’t met him yet, that I know of—but focusing solely on wanting him
to come isn’t healthy and can keep me from seeing other blessings in each day
the Lord gives me. Distracting myself with other things or duties is helpful on
the surface, but to go soul-deep I had to look at the next part of the verse.
But on what is unseen. This is the
trickiest part, I think, because if you can’t see it, how can you focus on it?
The thing that’s helped me the most with this part has been to quiet my heart
and mind and focus on God. His strength, His wisdom, the fact that He knows
that I’m struggling right now. That He holds the blueprints to my life, my
future. He knows who my husband-to-be
is. He knows when and how we will
meet. He knows what I need to learn
(and what my husband-to-be needs to learn) before we meet. And He knows how to teach us those lessons so
that we each will soak the wisdom He’s offering into our hearts to be held for
a lifetime. By focusing on Him and everything He knows about my situation, I have been placing my trust in Him more
and more each day without even realizing it. (That’s another thing I’ve been
working extra hard on lately, but that’s a different story altogether.)
Seen is temporary. This bit hit me hard
when I first started working on memorizing this verse. My neighbor recently
died, as you know from a previous article here at Writing to Inspire, and that made me realize even more than normal
that life is short, our days are numbered, and we don’t know how long we
have to make a difference on this earth. In thinking of my situation of
being single, I realized that life is short and I’m only getting older every
year. Which means I may not have as long with my husband-to-be as I originally
thought (once he arrives in my life, that is). Now, I thought realizing just
how short life is would make me go into the woe
is me mindset. But it didn’t. Rather, it made me begin to cherish every
moment I’ll have with my husband-to-be even more. Maybe, because of all the
various tragedies I’ve seen in my life and the lives of those around me, I’ll
be able to treasure the days—however many they are—I’ll have with my
husband-to-be once we do find each other. Perhaps those days, years, and
possibly even decades will become something even more special because, a few
Sundays ago, I realized in a new-to-me way that life on earth is a temporary thing that no one
other than God can predict. Sure, I knew this before. But on that Sunday … that
day it sank in a little—or a lot—more. And maybe that’s one of the lessons God
was trying to teach me.
Unseen is eternal. This part of the
verse focuses on building treasure in heaven. If I’m focusing on the invisible
(or unseen) God and gaining characteristics that mirror His own (such as
contentment, patience, and trust), then I’m building up heavenly treasure that
will last for all eternity. I may not be able to see it or use it or touch it
right now, but it is building a legacy of godliness that I’ll be able to leave
for future generations to learn from, and it’s also preparing me to be received
into my heavenly home whenever my time eventually comes. And honestly, no
matter how many collections of books or movies or shoes I have here on earth,
the only true legacies that matter to me on a spiritual level are the ones that
will show my children and their children that spending eternity with God is the
most special treasure we could ever hope to attain.
There
are so many things to be learned from that one verse in 2 Corinthians. Just
imagine how much more there is to learn in the rest of the Bible!
Other
sources of knowledge on the subject of waiting for your spouse to arrive in
your life are books from the Christian living aisle at your favorite
bookstores. Here are some of the titles I learned about a couple weeks ago
that I’m looking forward to reading over the next year. This is the list of
titles I promised a couple weeks ago that I would share with you.
Passion
and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot
I
Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris
Secret
Keeper by Danna K. Gresh
God’s
Gift to Women by Eric Ludy
When
God Writes Your Life Story by Eric and Leslie Ludy
When
God Writes Your Love Story by Eric and Leslie Ludy
Lady
in Waiting by Jackie Kendall
The
Mark of a Man by Elisabeth Elliot
The
Path of Loneliness by Elisabeth Elliot
Every
Young Woman’s Battle by Shannon Ethridge and Stephen Arterburn
Uncompromising
by Hannah Farver
The
Sacred Search by Gary Thomas
Disciplines
of a Godly Woman by Barbara Hughes
Boy
Meets Girl by Joshua Harris
Sacred
Singleness by Leslie Ludy
Be
encouraged, my friends! Whatever season of life you find yourself in, God is
there, waiting for you to trust Him with your heart, even when you are afraid
of the results or the journey.
Readers, what season of life are you in
right now? If you could encourage someone else dealing with similar things that
you’re dealing with, what would you say to them?
What Bible verses have you found to be
encouraging during this current season of your life? Are there any books you
would recommend that deal with where you’re at? Or what type of books are you
searching for?
Maybe we can help each other find books that will lend a new
perspective.
Coming soon:
March 2 - The Prayer Box
March 9 - (yet to be decided)
March 16 - Be My Guest: Elizabeth Maddrey
Thanks for stopping by today! I look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comment section below. And don’t forget to drop by next Monday for my latest article.
