We sometimes resent that our life isn’t what it once was - Or perhaps the “sameness” of life has caused us to be discontent, pushing us to wander this world and seek what it has to offer.

Have you heard the phrase "Someone who has broken down the fence wanders endlessly"?

Surely, there must be no harm in searching for the meaning and purpose of our lives - but there is a serious danger when we do it alone, following our heart's desires and lowering our guard. 

We can be easily attacked by the "roaring lions" and eventually become lost.

In Jeremiah we read that our hearts are crafty - they cannot be trusted.

Jeremiah 17:9 NLT

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

Jesus also said that nothing good comes from our hearts. 

Matthew 15:19 NLT

For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander.

We MUST NOT follow our heart, but instead guard it, for everything we do flows from it.

Don't break or lower the fence we are in.

We must guard it.

We must stay alert.

How? Let's unfold some stories from the book of Genesis and learn from them.

1. GENESIS 24: A Wife for Isaac

Genesis 24:39-40 NLT

“But I said to my master, ‘What if I can’t find a young woman who is willing to go back with me?’ He responded, ‘The Lord, in whose presence I have lived, will send his angel with you and will make your mission successful. Yes, you must find a wife for my son from among my relatives, from my father’s family.

READ FULL STORY HERE

This story serves as a reminder of the firm FAITH of Abraham's servant in choosing a spouse for his master's son.

CAREFULLY obeying all instructions given by his master, Abraham.

First of is, it must be from his father's family, not to mention how long the journey from Canaan to Haran is and the possibility that there will be no woman willing to go with him and marry Isaac.

- Yet this servant believes what his master believes in - that surely God will make his journey successful.

We cannot settle for less in choosing the one we will going to marry.

Someone we choose to love or pour our energy and focus into will surely affect our walk with the Lord.

It is very important that we mustn't let our hearts be captivated by those who are not in the family of faith, even if the search and waiting are long, or there is no assurance that we will meet our future spouses or not.

Don't settle for less or compromise with our values as Christians, following our heart's desires, thinking there's no harm in trying, or bargaining with the Lord, because the truth is that issues will arise later on.

The Bible says in Proverbs,

Proverbs 14:12 NLT

There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.

Let's save ourselves from the unnecessary pain that wrong relationships might bring.

It may start well, but it surely will not finish well.

Like Abraham's servant, we must also believe our Master in Heaven - that His will is the best and He has our best interest at us.

2. GENESIS 26: Isaac caresses her wife Rebekah

Genesis 26:8-10 NLT

But some time later, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out his window and saw Isaac caressing Rebekah.

Immediately, Abimelech called for Isaac and exclaimed, “She is obviously your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” “Because I was afraid someone would kill me to get her from me,” Isaac replied.

“How could you do this to us?” Abimelech exclaimed. “One of my people might easily have taken your wife and slept with her, and you would have made us guilty of great sin.”

READ FULL STORY HERE

What we can learn from this story is the importance of spending time with our spouses, and this is not just a simple time; it is a time that ONLY a husband and a wife can SHARE.

The truth is marriage will not always be a sweet walk together, but a little mix of everything.

Its inertia is not to grow close together, but with the demands of life - kids, bills, chores - it may drift apart if we are not intentional in guarding and taking care of it.

Isaac caressing her wife Rebekah is a reminder that we must keep putting spices in our marriages.

Honoring it by honoring our marriage bed - don't stop "flirting" with our spouses, invest in each other.

Date each other once in a while.

Laugh together.

Surprise each other.

Tickle each other.

Enjoy each other, have fun!

King Abimelech had an interest in Rebekah, but when he saw how Isaac was intimately touching his wife Rebekah, this made King Abimelech stop his desire, and it saved the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah.

Let's not be ashamed of showing our affection to each other in public from time to time.

Let's talk about our spouses in front of our friends, officemates, relatives, churchmates even acquaintances.

Share their photos, and show some moments together in the open.

Don't hide them.

Let us not be too comfortable and complacent with our marriages - marriage is work, and love is an action, a choice, and a commitment.

For new and especially mature Christians, we all know that the Bible is our compass - its counseling is usually in the form of a warning, exhortation, and instruction.

Let's guard our hearts by listening to the scriptures, asking God to align our hearts with His.

Staying alert by being fervent in our prayers to the Lord, sharing the troubles and concerns of our hearts with Him, and asking for protection from the attacks of evil.

1 Peter 5:8 NIV

Be alert and of sober mind.

Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, 

It's LOVE Month!

Let me highlight some sweetness, kindness, and thoughtfulness I received a little not so lately - 

Not from my husband but from the One who loved me first - JESUS 🤍

STORY 1:

There was this day when I was asking the Lord for a budget for my hair and makeup since we would be having an event in our company.

I need 1500 PHP to be exact.

That exact day, someone messaged me from the Facebook marketplace and she bought not just one but three paintings from me.

Do you know what amazes me more?

Each of my paintings cost 500 php! 😊

What a sweet Lord! Isn't He?

Hair and Makeup are not significant needs, to begin with, but for God to give me what I want instantly and very exactly - it melts my heart.

STORY 2:

I woke up one morning from a dream of eating a piece of "Mango Bravo".

It is a cake from a Bakeshop named "Contis" - so I was craving it all day.

I thought to myself it was too expensive to buy the whole cake given that there's no occasion to be celebrated, and if we just bought one slice, we would still need to buy some food to make our dine-out worthy; hence, I just decided to forget it.

Afternoon came, around 5pm.

Someone messaged us telling us that they would like to buy our baby a Birthday/Christmas present at the mall near us, so we went.

When we arrived they told us that they were at a restaurant cafe...

And Yup!

It's "Contis"

My heart immediately pounded at the thought of that cake! I realized that just when we surrendered our desire to the Lord, He give it in His own time. Praise you Lord!

STORY 3:

When we had our Christmas party last December, I had this particular prize I'm eyeing thinking that it was a house fragrance (because upon asking what is it, I found out it was not) well, I didn't get it even though I have put much effort to win the game.

Another Christmas party came, and so another gift is bound to be received.

To my heart's gladness, one of the items I got is a house fragrance! And it is big! He might not gave me what I want at the moment where I strongly want it because it is a wrong desire, indeed He gave it in the right time with a much better thing. He knows the best indeed!

Oh God, how sweet and thoughtful You really are!

Giving not just our needs but also those we desire.

Yes, it is God's desire to make our hearts glad too knowing it is good for us.

He wants to put smiles on our faces and extend His goodness to us.

Showing how much He knows us and cares for us.

If people who love us like our earthly parents or spouses desire to make us happy by granting our wishes what more is our Heavenly Father who loves us perfectly.

He doesn't withhold good things to whom it is due when it's in His power to do it.

Luke 11:11-13

What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

So this season of love, I encourage you to taste and see the sweetness of our Father in Heaven.

I can say, there's nothing like the sweetness of God. It touches the soul.

And more than the gifts and surprises, for me, it's His presence that blesses me.

Truly, it's the thought that counts and to think that God thinks of me, just makes me feel special, wanted, and pursued.

Indeed, He is not just my Ultimate Provider but my Ultimate Lover as well.

Happy LOVE Month!

Ps. Thanks to my husband for this surprise

Social media can be deceiving sometimes if we are not careful.

Our eyes have a lot to see and our hearts have too much to desire.

There is a grand destination wedding, a dream honeymoon, a date night, a vacation trip or staycation, a new house, a new car, new shoes, a new everything, having a happy family, happy marriage, and a happy self.

Everyone would like to present themselves as the one having it all and while there should be really nothing wrong with having and achieving all these things, we must not forget that our hearts are a factory of desires.

It will keep wanting.

That is why God said to guard it for everything we do flows from it.

In the Bible, it says that Solomon didn't refuse to give himself all that he had desired nor withhold his heart from all the pleasures he had in mind - yet, in the end, it feels VANITY.

Ecclesiastes 2:10

All that my eye desired, I did not refuse them.

I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure for my heart was pleased because of all my labor

And this was my reward for all my labor.

The truth is this world will always create someone who is prettier than us, lovelier, charming, smarter, younger, successful, everything we can name of.

The enemy will keep on feeding our mind that someone is better than us so pursue more, want more, achieve more.

Satan is even at work telling us the lie that everyone has an enjoyable life.

And so if we are experiencing hardships and problems, a downhill path in our life we must keep it to ourselves.

It feels shameful to admit it as the world seems perfect and seems to be happy all the time.

No one for sure will understand us and everyone will love to judge us.

Hence, our usual response will be to fix it ALONE while hiding it, brushing it off, or denying it.

But the danger of keeping our struggles in secret is that the enemy works in darkness because he is afraid that the light will expose their deeds.

Not opening it to the light is like giving an enemy the power to be with us in the dark - alone with them.

In fact like animals, we become prey and are most vulnerable when we are separated from our pack.

We are most likely to fall into temptation and so eventually give in to the sinful pattern of this world.

That's why God said that it is not good for a man to be alone and that two are better than one for when one falls, the other may help him get up.

Yet, there's a good news...

Do you know that the Bible is filled with stories of tears, yet also filled with stories of a God who wiped them away?

There is no place unreachable by the Lord.

No place that is too far from Him.

He even says that we cannot hide from His Spirit.

Psalm 139:7-12

I can never escape from your Spirit!

I can never get away from your presence!

If I go up to heaven, you are there;

if I go down to the grave, you are there.

If I ride the wings of the morning,

if I dwell by the farthest oceans,

even there your hand will guide me,

and your strength will support me.

I could ask the darkness to hide me

and the light around me to become night—

but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.

To you the night shines as bright as day.

Darkness and light are the same to you.

What a wonderful reminder!

We could come into darkness yet even that DARKNESS is NOT DARK to Him at all.

Even in the dark, He sees us,

We can never flee from His presence.

That's why he says He is our Emmanuel.

He is always with us.

He even came down to us and dwelled with us so we could have fellowship with Him.

Fellowship. 

Yes, that is SHARING our lives with one another.

Jesus shared His life with us while living in our world.

He modeled that living in a community and DOING LIFE with other believers is vital in our walk in Him.

He showed how important fellowship is to His body.

It is to strengthen one another because He knows that no one is strong enough to be alone and so we need each other's help.

It is to encourage one another because He knows sometimes we can lose hope and lose sight of our purpose.

Holiness, indeed, is not a lone ranger effort.

So let us not hesitate to open ourselves in the light together with those who follow the Lord from a pure heart.

Our inner circles are some of the most important predictors of how successful we can be in our life too.

Do not be deceived by the lie that we can keep bad company and not be negatively affected.

Proverbs 13:20

Walk with the wise and become wise;

associate with fools and get in trouble.

Do not be afraid to be a part of a community 

Share your story with your trusted circles.

Reach out to someone whom you know loves and fears the Lord. :)

Our Couple's Discipleship Group