Abide.

After a very long season of being single, the Lord has, in His amazing and crafty way, given me the gift of a relationship.

We have been friends for a very long time, and I am amazed at how much depth that adds to my feelings of Love toward her.

When you have a foundation of understanding and insight as to what motivates someone, and how committed they are to things, it can help you to understand the actions they take. And in some cases, let go of the need to understand.

The word that God is showing me right now is "Abide".

What I am realizing about this word is that in many ways it describes a mindset that precedes experience, and even defines it.

To me, the definition of Abiding is becoming about how you view someone...what you believe about them. What you believe about someones character and motivations is a framework through which you interpret events and actions.

Abiding is becoming less about defining through the experience, and more about defining the experience through abiding.

Remembering that the Lord is gracious, kind, and for you is the difference between feeling abandoned, and knowing that you are on the verge of victory when things get tough. I think it is the same in relationships. You have to learn how to overcome your fears but acting in the opposite spirit which is faith.

One could argue that in earthly relationships you don't have the benefit of someone who is always steady, kind merciful and true. Which is correct, but in the long run you have to ask yourself which is the better risk... do you want to live in the fortress of expecting disappointment, telling yourself that you are protecting yourself from being hurt, or do you want to move out of the small fenced area of your life into the endless beauty of fulfilled hopes. One is to live eternally in the grey land of hope deferred, waiting for the landscape to show no signs of potential danger before you move (if you move at all), the other is to decide that in the end, you would rather be wrong, than to not have tried at all...and in many cases, it is the path to the tree of life that is desires fulfilled. And to be brutally honest, even if you are wrong, you will be better off that having not tried, as you will have set the foundations for choosing to risk love like God does.

The thing about fear is, it is counterfeit faith. It is based in conviction, and defines your actions. The strange thing is, if you have been given the gift of faith, fear can be even more dangerous if you don't know how powerful faith can be in changing the environment around you. If your firm conviction is that of betrayal, in many ways you will become the catalyst that brings that into your life by how you treat others. You will expect them to betray you, and you will inevitable treat them like they already have. It is a certain recipe for failure since no one wants to stay under that for long, and in the end may have to leave just to think straight again.

Abiding is a meditation. It is pondering the truth. It is seeing the best, and believing hope. Abiding in love, you believe all things, and hope all things. You see God clearer, and become a catalyst for change. You start being more willing to let others in, and you start to look alot more like Jesus...