Monday, March 19, 2018

Give Up to Gain More

When I was twenty-two I gave up dating for a year. In my teen years I had made some unwise sexual decisions. This past haunted me and followed me. I allowed myself to be defined by what I had done, but by who I was. There came a point where I would allow relationships with girls to take a higher priority than my relationship with Jesus. This wasn't good for anyone.

Finally I decided that it was time to give up my plan and find God’s plan. It was time to loose my life and find the life God had for me. You know that crazy part about this? When I was nearing the end of this year off of dating, that is when I met this beautiful girl named Charity Fairfield (I knew that one day I was gonna change her last name). We started out as friends. I loved seeing her love for God. I took my meager intern salary and bought her coffee in a hope that she would fall for me! If you want to hear more of the story I’d be glad to tell you but on January 7, 2005 Charity and I were married.

What is it that God is asking you to give up? Is there something in your life that you've allowed to take a more prominent position than God? We allow all types of things to be more important than God. We let friends, family, finances, housing, jobs and toys push the love of God out of our hearts.

If I never gave up my plan than I’m not sure I would have been ready for God’s plan. It took time. It was tough not dating. It required me to think about my life, what I was doing, why I was doing it and where it was going. You can do these same things with your walk with God. God wants to speak to you. God wants to encourage you and share great things with you. These questions can prompt a great discussion for you to have with God.

In Matthew 16:21-28 Jesus teaches us that: Disciples follow Jesus by giving their lives to Him. Jesus called the disciples to leave their plans, hopes and dreams. Jesus wanted to give them a better plan, brighter hopes and bigger dreams. Only when we loose our life can we find the true life that Jesus is calling each of us to live.

When I look back on my life, I am so glad I gave up dating. I'm glad I went through those tough times of looking deep into my heart and examining my motives. God used that time to shape me. God humbled me and did a deep work in my heart. During that time I also sought out professional counseling to address some of the pain I had endured in life. Each of us endure pain, what matters is how we let the pain shape us.

Looking back on 13 years of marriage, I am so glad that I gave up because I have gained so much more by spending life with Charity! 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I long to have this type of relationship with god, like David. I am after gods heart aswell. But I'm stuck in this war with my flesh and the flesh of my loved ones like my wife, children and my in-laws.. I know he's asking me to stop dwelling on what I can't change about them and he's urging me to come closer to him and his love. But for some reason I just can't stop drilling my thoughts and desires and plans into the people around me as if my plans are going to work for them. Please pray for Neil. This is Jordan Perez, I've met you a few times before.