I used to wonder if finding love always happened in an immediate and spectacular way (to the person, it’s probably spectacular in significance!).  The Lord, though, is not always in to doing something immediate and spectacular because one of the ways I’ve found His blessings and answers to appear is in subtle ways.  At least in my life they do.  That means I don’t immediately notice something all at once having been answered, but is progressive.

Love doesn’t just suddenly come to two people on a bus who make eye contact or walk past each other in a park.  A relationship begins with putting the desire into the Lord’s care and, after deciding what you are looking for, it takes intentiality of friendship with someone that can subtly build into a marriage relationship.

One day the Spirit shared with me that a relationship (or any blessing) begins with deciding how much you care about it and that can determine what you are willing to intentionally do and the fears you are willing to reject by the Spirit.  You decide if it is worth you being taken out of a comfort zone through spiritual promptings and not allowing fear or expectations of everything happening immediately to restrict you, in Jesus’s Name.

The men in the gospel of Mark, who were trying to get their paralyzed friend to Jesus, were coming with the expectation of recieving a blessing and it was their intentionality that helped them receive what the Lord wanted to bless their friend with.  It is said,

“Since they couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof over the place where he was. They dug through it and let down the mat on which the paralyzed man was lying” (Mark 2:4)

The group of friends didn’t stop efforts in obtaining what they desired when they couldn’t get through the door to the house because of a difficulty (or the appearance of one).   They didn’t automatically decide that it wasn’t meant to be just because Jesus didn’t walk right up to them as soon as they approached and made it work immediately.   They had a part to play in trusting and taking a step.

I wonder if the thought of climbing to the roof was truly their idea or if it was divinely inspired….I think it is possible.  Even though they didn’t have the Spirit to prompt them in every situation -to encourage them to be intentional any time they needed it-we DO have daily guidance when we ask.  The Spirit knows the route to fully recieving the blessing physically…and it is a trustworthy route!

Every love story is different because the Lord is that creative!  Spiritual promptings will vary.  But if a relationship is truly of the Lord, then the intentiality will always be fruitful. It’s a matter of first asking the Spirit to guide you through with every detail that the Lord has already gone ahead of to fulfill the blessing of companionship.  Understand that every detail is so vital to receive, especially to prepare you for such a long-term relationship!  The rest definitely takes trusting the Lord while acting on promptings and wisdom from the Spirit, even when it is not the way you would have thought to work it out.   Then just receive, be thankful that the Lord delights in blessing you, and that He wants to take care in every detail of your relationship!