His Word that has guided Jacki and I every step of our journey thus far. When Jacki and I decided to start down this road a few LONG months ago, we asked the Lord to never let us lose sight of him as our first love. We asked him to build us a foundation in him that would not waver like the house built on the rock. We asked him to hold our hands and guide us and never leave us and he has so graciously answered our plea. Jacki and I cannot imagine what our relationship or lack thereof would look like without the Word of God and time in prayer, seeking his Spirit to guide our every step. It really has nothing to do with us and everything to do with him and it's such a blessing. He is teaching us that to have a Christ-centered relationship we need to keep our eyes firmly fixed on him and never let our gaze wander. It has been hard at times as even wise counselors have advised us that seeking the Lord together and reading the Bible together is not healthy and or appropriate for two people in a courtship. While we understand and completely agree that in many cases, reading Scripture and praying together can lead to an intimacy that is premature and misleading, we cannot deny what Christ has done through His Word in us. His Word has been the glue that has held us together and grown us in him. When we get frustrated or confused and don't know where to turn, running to him and His Word has rescued us every time. Christ daily reminds us through His Word of His goodness and daily shows us our need for Him. Below we have shared just a few of the Scriptures that the Lord has used to draw us closer to Him and to lead us in our relationship. Through all our trials and all Satan's attacks, the Lord has delivered us through His Word and truth time and time again. We are so very thankful and hope that you will be encouraged through what He has taught us so graciously.
- Psalm 18:1-3 "I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies."
Jacki and I are on a journey that the Lord has so graciously blessed us with and is leading in a really hands-on way. One of the things that he has reminded us time and time again is that he is our Rock and our Fortress and he will ALWAYS deliver us. He is our shield and salvation and stronghold. There have been and will be many times when we encounter trials and yet when we call upon his name he is ALWAYS faithful and forever worthy of our praise. He will never fail to deliver us from our enemies and in him we can always rest. What a blessed truth this has been for us and he never fails to remind us of this even in the most dire of straights.
- Psalm 18:37-39 "I pursued me enemies and overtook them, and did not turn back till they were consumed. I thrust them through, so that they were not able to rise; they fell under my feet. For you equipped me with strength for the battle, you made those who rise against me sink under me."
The Lord has taught me a great deal through this Scripture, and has extended those lessons into David's and my relationship. I have struggled throughout my life with eating disorders (bulimia and partial anorexia) and while I no longer am falling into these particular external behaviors, my mind is still a battlefield on a daily basis to take every thought captive to Christ and not obsess over food, working out, and being thin. The Lord has been teaching me a lot lately about how with His help these attacks from the enemy really can be thwarted. I don't have to keep living in constant bondage, with my enemies always rising to harass me only a short time after I thought they were gone. Instead, with the Word of God and prayer (the weapons of our warfare!), the Lord really can demolish these strongholds and make it so that they rise no longer. David prays this Scripture for me a lot in relation to these struggles.
- Proverbs 21:1 "The kings heart is a stream of water in the land of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will."
As David and I had been praying about when we were supposed to get married, we had been asking the Lord if it might be sooner than we originally thought. My parents, however, have always had the rule that I could not get married until we both had college degrees. While we were asking Him about this a lot and getting to a place where we were willing to step out in faith even if my parents did not agree, the Lord used counsel from David's parents and this Scripture to really confirm to us that He wants us to honor my parents in this. I am under the umbrella of their authority, so my responsibility is to honor them in this, and they will be accountable to the Lord either way. I trust that if their hearts are like a stream of water in His hands and that He can choose to change it or not, according to His desire. He's AMAZING!
- 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
When I was five years old I was admitted to the hospital with a severe asthma attack and thinking that my life had come to a quick and sudden end, I told my dad I wanted to get saved so I could go to heaven. While I prayed that night and asked Jesus to come into my heart, my relationship with him did not become a reality until much later in life. Because of this I walked for many years very far away from Christ and suffered the consequences of that through many decisions. I spent many years living for myself and trying to do things on my own. I tried to stay pure in my relationships on my own and quickly found out that it was entirely impossible. I refused, however, to give control of this area to Christ and because of this I suffered great consequences. I struggled growing up with pornography and this struggle led to sexual impurity in my relationships which resulted in me losing my virginity. I didn't realize how far-reaching my sin would at the time and it was only as Christ really started pursuing me a couple of years ago that I realized the cost of my sin. Instead of resting in the Lords grace I fell into a deep despair and carried shame with me for a very long time. I thought to myself that there was no way I could ever attract a Christian woman because of what I had done. I thought that for sure once she found out about my past that there would be no way that she could love me. I even struggled with the fact that Christ could forgive me for turning away from him for so long. The Lord began to use this verse to show me the work he had done in me and to show me that I was a new creation in him. I began to release the shame I had been carrying for so long and thought I had released it completely. When I met Jacki and the Lord made it clear that he wanted us to enter a courtship I was ecstatic but at the same time in the back of my mind doubt began to creep in. I spent many sleepless nights wrestling with my past and my worth. As hard as the Lord tried to show me and remind me of the work he had done, I still had trouble believing that I was worthy to get to lead a woman such as Jacki. I knew at some point I would need to have a conversation with Jacki about this and that conversation came a few weeks ago. The conversation actually lasted about three days and the Lord blew me away with grace during this time. The first night I couldn't get any words out of my mouth and Jacki so graciously let me know that I didn't have to say a word, though we both knew that wasn't the end of the conversation. The second night the Lord led Jacki to ask me if I was a virgin and as I replied "no" the Lord once again showed me his grace through Jacki's reaction. Though I had peace that she finally knew, I knew the Lord still had work to do. The next day as I was in job training I was miserable, and Jacki ended up spending the whole day crying out to the Lord. It wasn't by any means easy for her and though she knew the Lord had made me a new creation, she still had to process through it with him and find peace in his healing. That night the Lord led us to sit down and talk about it and he led me to walk through everything with Jacki. It was truly an amazing time as the Lord used that time to heal both our hearts and reassure of both of his forgiveness, grace and love. Though I didn't want to tell her at first, I knew that if she didn't know, I would always question whether her knowing would've affected her love for me. The Lord showed me a greater picture of grace and forgiveness through Jacki than I had ever seen in my life. He took away the shame that I was still holding onto and gave me joy boasting in the way he has truly made me a new creation in him.
When I was younger, I had wanted a boyfriend so badly. I recall even getting mad at the Lord for not bringing me a boyfriend, because I couldn't at all understand His purposes. Yet He was gracious enough very early on to give me a desire to be faithful to Him and also to my future husband in the area of sexual purity. Through various books I had read (like "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" by Joshua Harris), the Lord made very clear to me that a woman who fears the Lord "does good and not evil [to her husband] all the days of her life" (Proverbs 31:12). He impressed upon me that doing good to my husband and being faithful to Him did not start the day we got married, or even the day I met him! "All the days of [my] life" meant in 9th grade, the beginning of college, every single day. And while the Lord was jealously guarding my purity, I hoped and prayed that He would be doing the same in my future husband. I related so much to Rebecca St. James' lyrics, pleading with her future husband, "I am waiting for you, praying for you darling. Wait for me, too...wait for me as I wait for you!"
When I met David, I was completely astonished that a man like him actually existed. He is so humble, gentle, kind, passionate, zealous, intelligent. He adores the Lord and seeks to give Him glory in everything. I did know, however, that he hadn't always been following the Lord as closely as he has been for the past two years. When David and I discussed his past, I found myself faced with something I hoped I'd never have to face. Yet I prayed that the Lord would help me to have the mind of Christ as I responded to David and processed through it myself. Thankfully, the Lord showed me grace in this. He has taught me so much about forgiveness and how He can make one of His children dead to sin and alive to God. Through this the Lord has made Romans 6 a huge reality. Seriously, these are not just words on a page. David has repented of these sins, and they are now as far as the East is from the West. The Lord keeps no record of wrongs, since He is the fulfillment of 1 Corinthians 13. David's "old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin" (Romans 6:6). These truths were shown to me with such clarity. I have seen the man that the Lord has shaped David Miller into, and he truly is an amazing new creation, shaped after the image of his Savior. I praise the Lord for the amazing work He has done in David, and am SO THANKFUL to be his girlfriend!
These are just a few of the Scriptures the Lord has been using. We actually have a separate word document with 2 more pages of Scripture (haha, get it? WORD document? haha...okay I'm done) that we are going to blog about sometime soon. We just figured we should put something up for you guys reading this! We love you all!!!
I'm stoked about this. About the Lord for you two. Keep doing what you're doing, and keep sharing it!
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