1 Corinthians 13:7-8
Here are 5 crucial things that need to happen in your life when true love is just around the corner.
And I also wanted to briefly mention that the deadline to enroll in AGW University is quickly approaching. You are not going to find a magical formula in these courses that makes your future spouse appear. Rather, these courses provide you with deep, biblical information specifically applied to the topic of relationships. If you are a Christian single person who has past wounds you know you need to work through, if you want biblical steps to take to help you meet other singles, and if you want one-on-one private email coaching with me, along with a $50 scholarship, feel free to click here to learn more before the February 27th deadline.
1. Before God Brings True Love Into Your Heart, He Often Teaches You About True Love in Your Mind
If you don’t know what true love is, it will be very easy to miss it when it happens to you.
Love can be a difficult word to define because there are technically many different types of love. For example, in C.S. Lewis’s helpful book called The Four Loves, he explains the differences between affection, friendship, eros, and charity. But for our purposes here, I think the best place to look is John 15:13 where Jesus talks about the highest form of love, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
Jesus is not just talking about the love between a man and woman who are romantically interested in each other. But to have true love in a romantic relationship, the truth in this verse must be present between the man and woman. If there is no sacrificial love involved and both are just there to take, this is just two people who are infatuated with each other. Eventually this type of connection fades and shows itself to be something other than true love.
2. Before God Connects You to Someone in True Love, He Will Free You from Other Burdens That Would Get in the Way
In Scripture, there’s always a pattern of first letting something go and then receiving something new. In John 12:24, Jesus said the seed needs to die in the ground before the new plant can grow. In Matthew 13:44 Jesus said that a man must first sell all he has to be able to then buy the field with the treasure buried in it. In Matthew 13:45-46, Jesus said the merchant needed to trade everything he already owned to get the new precious pearl that he just found. And in Matthew 16:25, Jesus said that before we can find our life in him, we must lose our life for him.
This same pattern will happen when true love comes into your life. If you are attached to someone that God does not have for you or if you are holding onto emotional baggage from the past, you are not ready to walk in freedom with someone new.
When you are getting freed from the burdens that would keep you from thriving in a true love relationship, this is a good sign God is bringing you one step closer to this blessing.
3. When God Begins to Remove the Fear Between You and Someone, This Is a Sign God Is Preparing You for True Love
Fears are good when used to keep you safe. If you had no fear of falling, you would eventually fall off a cliff and die. Likewise, if you have no fear in relationships with anyone, you will get taken advantage because you will miss the red flags.
But when God begins to lay a foundation for true love between you and another person, the fear will begin to go away. Notice what 1 John 4:16-18 states about God’s love and the absence of fear:
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
While our human love will never be perfect like God’s love, it is true that when you and someone have true love for each other, this will be marked by the absence of fear between you two.
4. When You and Someone Trade the “Chances Mindset” for the “Commitment Mindset”, This Is a Sign True Love Is Forming
Because of God’s grace, we don’t get a second chance. Rather, now we get God’s full-commitment (Romans 8:39). If we had a second chance to do it right for God, we would screw that chance up too. We don’t need more chances from God. We need a sure thing. Grace is not based on our works (Ephesians 2:8-9). It’s based on God’s love expressed through the accomplishments of Christ on the cross (1 John 4:9-10). God’s love is forever (2 Timothy 2:13).
Likewise, when you and someone have true love for each other, you will lose this “chances mindset” and you will trade it in for a commitment. I’m not saying you should have this mindset with everyone you date or like. While we must always love in the Christian sense, when it comes to this romantic love I’m talking about, we are not to always stay with someone. There are things people can do that show us we do not have true love for each other.
But when true love occurs, you stop giving each other chances and you start accepting that you will stay together no matter what. This type of love is reflected in marriage (Mark 10:9). When true love is present, you don’t just break up when things get hard. You work through it together because true love always remains (1 Corinthians 13:7-8).
5. When True Love Is Right Around the Corner, Both of You Will Be Walking By Faith
If you needed to see around every corner before you walk around it, you would always get stuck right where you are. God won’t literally tell you both, “Hey, just walk around one more corner and then I will give you true love.” Rather, God will say, “Trust me. Keep walking with me.”
We don’t know what God has planned for you. He may have true love just around the corner for you or he may not. But either way, to experience what God has for you, you must walk by faith, putting one foot in front of the other as you keep pressing forward with the Lord, “For we live by faith, not by sight, (2 Corinthians 5:7).
And if you feel stuck when it comes to relationships and you don’t know what you should do to put yourself in the best position to receive the blessing of a godly marriage, I created my relationship training courses specifically for you. For more information about AGW University, the email coaching with me, and the $50 scholarship opportunity, feel free to click here.