March 7, 2022
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So I'm in the backyard with our then six-year-old grandson when, out of the blue, he says, "Grandpa, I'm going to be married someday." Oh boy. I'm searching for something wise to say as grandfathers are supposed to do. My grandson saved me - with five little words, "But it's up to Jesus." That little conversation has replayed in my head and my heart a dozen times I think.
See, I'm a guy who's worked with - and still works with - a lot of young people. Many of them bear the scars of the mistakes they've made for love. But then, so do many married couples I've been close to over the years.
Our desire to be loved, and to belong, to be married - all normal, even God-given. But those desires can be so strong or so impatient that we just out-and-out say, "I'm going to be married." Minus "It's up to Jesus." Because we've made up our mind that married is what we're going to be.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Mistakes We Make For Love."
That's where so many decisions have been made that led to loneliness more than love, to a nightmare instead of that dream come true. When it comes to love, we're not really sure like the Bible says, "the Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want" (Psalm 23:1). You know, if God's taking too long, it's our choice, not God's, right? And then we run around or ahead of God and ahead of His perfect plan for our lives. And we end up with a lifetime of regret wondering what might have been.
Our daughter had a plaque up in her room during her teenage years. It was a constant reminder to let the love of your life be your Heavenly Father's choice. It said, "God reserves His very best for those who leave the choice to Him."
Or, as our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 37 tells us beginning in verse 4, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust also in Him and He will bring it to pass." I take that to say, "You chase after the heart of God, and God will take care of seeing you have the love you need."
That statement about "He will give you the desires of your heart"? I've never known whether that means He will give you what you desire or He'll put His desires in your heart. Maybe it's some of each. Major on loving Him, and you'll be wanting what He wants to give you. At just the right time, in just the right way, He'll provide it.
So many wish that they had waited for God's choice. They wish they hadn't dethroned God when it came to their lifetime love. Thank God, there's grace from Him to redeem a human "mistake" with one of His miraculous marriage makeovers. But it's so much better to get it right from the start, which means surrendering to a loving Savior your right to be married; to trust Him to decide if and who and when. Because "as for God, (the Bible says) His way is perfect" (Psalm 18:30). Anyone who loved you enough to die for you is never going to do you wrong. Listen to the Bible: "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all - how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32).
After every "I want" should come four little words that mark the road to God's best. "It's up to Jesus." It's often our broken dreams and our messed up plans that actually turn our heart in God's direction. And that's where we finally find the love and the purpose that we were made for; that we've looked for our whole life. It's in the One who loved us like no one ever loved us - enough to die for our sin so we could be with Him forever. Not a dead Savior. A living Savior, who walked out of His grave three days after He died under His own power, so He could walk into your life today on your invitation and fill it with the love your heart has been so hungry for.
Maybe it's time to investigate letting Jesus drive, and how you can belong to Him now and forever. Our website's got a kind of "roadmap" for that. Would you check it out? It's ANewStory.com.
Look, haven't you lived long enough without the love you were made for?