Passion + Patience + Providence

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. John 15:13

Recently, I had the honor and opportunity to share a message at one of my closet friends Sean and Monie's wedding. They asked me a week before if I could share a 15 minute message about how the Lord brought them together in love and marriage. I wouldn't miss the wedding for anything, eventhough I had just flown back jet lagged from Asia. The couple asked me if I could share from my perspective their love story. Both Sean and Monie fell in love at a small house church I pastored a few years ago in San Jose. The story is truly a divine tale of how God can supernaturally bring two hearts together. I witnessed their falling in love, the sacrifices they gave up and the trust they put in God to bring them together in His timing and way. The message behind their story is one I feel I need to share to encourage those who read this to keep believing that true love is possible.

The morning of the wedding I still had not prepared a message for the wedding reception, so I simply asked the Holy Spirit to give me His message and not my own. Immediately after I prayed I received three words in my mind "Passion, Patience & Providence." I didn't know what these words meant, but as I thought about each of them the Holy Spirit began to reveal to me His message behind these three words.

The wedding took place at a winery in Santa Cruz and I had the blessing of giving the message to those attending from a balcony as they listened from the ground below. I shared about how these following three words best described how God brought Sean and Monie together.

Passion

The word passion means "strong intense desire for someone or something." Both Sean and Monie were two people who were incredibly passionate about the things they desired. Sean was a hopeless romantic and Monie was a passionate dreamer. The word passion in the original Latin is passere, it means "to suffer" like Christ or a Christian martyr. I always tell people, "You are not passionate for something unless you are willing to suffer for it." If you don't have a passion worth dying for, you have nothing worth living for. Jesus is the definition of passion. He loved us so much, He was willing to suffer and die so that we would have eternal life. He suffered and died because we are His passion. Passion is more than a intense desire, or what Hollywood would make it out to be. Passion is real, it hurts and it will cost you everything to have that which you are passionate about. Both Sean and Monie had a passion for one another, to the point they were willing to suffer for one another. I have seldom found two people as passionate and perfect for one another as these two, meaning, I know they both had to suffer much in order to find true love. Passion begets passion. The Bible says, "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 Jn 4:19), in other words, both of them chose to pursue the revelation of God's passion for them first in order that they might have true passion for one another. They sought God first, believing if it was God's will He would bring them together. Let me explain...

Patience

One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is "patience." The Bible says "love is patient" love is kind, it thinks of the other before it thinks of itself. This was true in Sean's story. A few years ago, Sean told me that he didn't know what to do with his feelings because he had fallen in love with Monie and desired to pursue a relationship with her. At that time, Monie had just become a born again believer in our house church and I told Sean, "Oh no you don't! Monie doesn't need you right now, she needs Jesus! You need to let her find Jesus first in her life and let her mature in the Lord before you pursue her." For Sean this was a difficult challenge to exercise self control and not give into the flesh. He knew in his spirit he was not to awaken love till it so desired. I am so proud of Sean, because he chose to completely surrender his feelings for Monie into the hands of the Lord. He chose the way of "patience" believing that if it was truly God's will for them to be together, God would make it happen. He truly chose the way of love, to think of her needs before his own. To let her find the greatest love, the greatest passion first, trusting God if it was meant to be, He would add all these other things to him if he sought first the kingdom.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight." Sometimes, especially in relationships we want to trust in our own wisdom, strength and power to make a relationship happen. We think, "If I don't do something how will anything happen?" Many times, we move ahead of the will of God and get ourselves in a lot of trouble. Yet, God has been speaking to me that we are to trust Him in our pursuit of love, believing that He will provide the right person at the right time. Recently, I've been praying for my future wife, be it His will, asking God daily to keep her pure and to protect her intimacy with Him.

I wholeheartedly believe in the "triangle theory" of love. God is on the top of the triangle, the man and woman are on the bottom corners of the triangle, one at each side. If they try to seek each other, they will collide, very likely butt heads. But if they seek God first at the top of the triangle of love, as they keep seeking God more and get closer to Him, He will supernaturally bring them closer to Himself and closer to one another. They can't see it in the natural, but in the realm of the unseen, God is knitting their hearts together in one spirit all the while bringing them closer to each other as they draw closer individually to the Lord.

Sean decided for two years to not pursue Monie, surrendered his feelings and emotions and completely trusted in God to bring them together if it was His will. He continued to pray for her, but never once flirted, but loved her as a sister in Christ. All the while, I know God was testing his heart and preparing them for one another.

Providence

"For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11) Nothing in this life happens by accident. God created each of us with a purpose and plan. He created us with a destiny to fulfill. Each of our lives is a story already written, waiting to be discovered. God knew who would be right for Sean and God knew who would be right for Monie. When we put our complete trust in Him, His plan unfolds and destiny begins. When we walk in His ways, His providence guides us into perfect paths. When we trust Him to provide for us the one He created for us, it will be a perfect match made in heaven.

Two years after Sean had entrusted Monie into God's hands, the Lord sovereignly brought them back together. Monie had a vision to hold a major fashion show that would be an outreach event to share the love of Christ with her friends. She had the vision, but she needed someone to help her implement the vision and make it become a reality. It just so happened that Sean had just quit his job, had administrative skills and was the only natural person in her circle of friends that could help her with seeing the dream event happen. They worked on the event for months. The night before the outreach, I slept over Monie's house as I was traveling through San Jose. That night I watched how Monie and Sean worked together so wonderfully, they complimented each other in every way. It hit me at that moment that they were meant for each other.

The day of the event Sean had to drop me off at the airport to catch my flight. I knew the Lord was asking me to bring up the thought I had the night before with him. As he dropped me off in his car at the airport, before I got out I asked him "Sean, do you still have feelings towards Monie? Cause if you do, I think you should really think about pursuing a relationship with her because I think she is spiritually ready." He was so surprised to hear me say this, he told me had entrusted her to the Lord, but was still wrestling with his feelings towards her at times. I left it at that and the rest of the story is history.

The fashion show outreach was a success. Afterwards, Sean couldn't get what I said to him out of his mind. He prayed and asked God over and over if it was His will to pursue Monie. God begin to confirm his ways and when he finally built up the confidence to talk with her about his feelings towards her, she reciprocated with love. In fact, she had liked him as long as he had liked her. In God's perfect timing He brought them together against all odds. This past weekend they were married in holy matrimony, their love was perfected in God and perfected in one another. They trusted in God, chose His will and followed His ways. For Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing (John 5:19). Sean and Monie followed not their will, but the perfect will of the Father. Providence is trusting that God can do it. That God can bring two hearts together when those two hearts trust in Him to make it happen.

My mother used to tell me, "Jaeson if two people are meant for each other, nothing can stop from them from being together." I'm a believer, that true love is possible, divine love can happen, chance happens, but it's not chance it's providence. Love is possible. It is possible when passion pursues patience and patience trusts in divine providence. Love can not be stopped because it was meant to be and it was written in heaven before time even began, God knew the perfect one He has created for each of us. We just have to trust that. We have to trust that God's ways are above our ways and His thoughts are above our thoughts.

As I shared this story at the wedding reception, I was looking at the bride and bridegroom, I was looking at Monie and Sean and I wanted to cry. Love is beautiful, it is so beautiful when it is done in God's way and in His time. I'm so proud of Sean and Monie for doing it God's way. It challenges me to trust our heavenly Father that if He did it for them, He can and will do it for anyone who chooses to put Him first in all things.

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

posted by Jaeson Ma @ 9/16/2007 11:47:00 PM