Candid Christian

Happy New Year Fam! If you’re reading this, I’m thankful we both made it 2022 and I’m excited to see what God has in store for us as we yield to His voice this year.

Towards the end of last year, the Holy Spirit made me see that I finally let go of a habit I had been struggling with (on and off) for a couple of years. If a guy wanted to get to know me, I’d want to know if He’s doing well enough for himself, knew where his life was headed or was from a home that had financial stability.

I wasn’t even doing this intentionally. Somewhere in my mind, I had believed a lie that I wouldn’t struggle if my future spouse had it together or at least was from a home that was financially stable.

I was only able to let this habit of “finding out how well the person was doing” go because for the first time, I listened to God. He had been trying to get me to listen all this while and I really thought I was listening but I wasn’t.

God needed me grounded in Him being my source and this truth was what removed the lie I believed (the mindset I had).

I had a dream and the meaning was so clear that God IS my source. No matter how much I try to hustle, push myself to be financially stable, marry someone who “had it together” or was from a wealthy home, everything could be gone and what would happen then?

“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God. The Lord is one. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.”

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (NLT)

The response to Israel listening was to love the Lord with all their heart, soul and all their strength, (this still applies to us today) but, we see in subsequent books of the Bible that they didn’t listen. They kept worshipping idols and doing the opposite of what God asked them to.

James‬ ‭1:22-25‬ ‭(NLT‬‬) says, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.”

I woke up once day and it hit me that this habit wasn’t helping me in any way and God wasn’t happy I was struggling with it because He had set me free. Thankfully, I’m now grounded in God being my source and I’m no longer checking for how “put together” a guy is. This belief is what I pray my future spouse has as well – God being his source.

Even in our relationships with friends or family, we get frustrated or upset when we keep telling them we don’t like a particular thing they do and they just keep on doing it. If they were really listening, they would respond by stopping that thing because you mentioned it made you upset or unhappy.

Did you really listen if it didn’t change your behavior? (Something to think about).

It’s my prayer this year, as God speaks to us, we respond by doing what He tells us to. We have His Holy Spirit who enables us yield to His voice / leading.

If you’re interested in The Bible Project’s podcast on what does it really mean to listen, click here.