Before You Meet Your Future HusbandSample

“Hitting Refresh” An elderly relative handed me (Robin) his battered phone. “What’s wrong with this?” he asked. “I can’t get it to do what I want.” I found the problem quickly. He had opened hundreds of files and apps and never closed any of them. He had also opened links in emails that clogged his phone with spam, and he had never deleted any texts or voicemails. All that data was running in the background and draining the real use and power of his phone. Within a few minutes, I’d cleared it, and his cell phone was refreshed and ready to go. Try the same process with your thoughts. What unrealistic data is still running in the background of your thoughts? What messages have you saved that should have been deleted long ago? What kind of spam has infiltrated your mind? Perhaps your imagination has held on to an impression of what romance should look like from a movie you loved as a child, but nothing in real life has measured up. Maybe you took to heart painful words from a broken relationship. You’re still running those discouraging messages in the background and believing a lie. To move forward, you need to swipe and clear your imagination, and hit refresh so that you can be ready for what comes next. One of the many amazing things about our Father God is that He is the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). He can write your love story in ways that are far more creative, mysterious, hilarious, and beautiful than anything you could dream up. But you must let Him do the writing. Scripture talks much about the mindset change we are to undergo when we cling to Jesus as our Bridegroom. Certainly, we all have “rebellious thoughts” (2 Corinthians 10:5). How do you know which thoughts are from the Lord and which are the rogue ones that snuck in there and set up an entire camp? Simple. You ask Him. He can show you how to renew your mind. No shame here. Just a fresh start. Once your thoughts are cleared and refreshed, you’ll have all the mental and emotional space needed to be filled up with the right thinking and aligned emotions. What thoughts about yourself and/or your future husband have you held on to that God is now asking you to let go of?