Category: Encouragement and Inspiration

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1Corinthians 15:57 tells us to give thanks to God, for He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. This isn’t a victory that takes us to the half-way mark and drops us off. It’s overwhelming victory that applies to every aspect of your existence. It’s a huge arena, because the victory we have in Christ covers the expanse your entire life, every nook and cranny of it. So, underestimating the flexibility that God requires of us is a mistake. We have to walk by His divine guidance and direction every moment of every day, because spiritual training is never ending, but it’s the best thing that could ever happen to us, because victory in Christ is guaranteed. Again, this doesn’t apply to just one area of our lives; through Jesus Christ, we can have victory in every area. However, when it comes to victory in marital partnership, some of us are still warming up for the race. We’re learning how to maximize faith by beginning at a slower pace. Heavenly Father is making sure we don’t burn out in the middle of the race.

Victory means that you’re going to be uncomfortable. For many of us, this discomfort comes from being patient longer than we’d like and not knowing exactly what we ought to be doing during the wait. Well, one of the things we must do during the wait is prepare for what a marital future will hold for us. In consideration of this, my pastor reminds me to make sure Romans 8:37 is firmly etched in my heart. It tells us that we are more than conquerors in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of those verses that demonstrates the exceedingly abundant way in which God delivers on His promises. Most of us would have been thrilled to pieces about just being a conqueror—being able to tackle a few hefty challenges in life, but Jesus Christ has made us more than this. He made us more than conquerors because we need to be.

Being a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ will cost you something—victory always does. You can’t be more than a conqueror without having something to conquer. We’re going to have to go through some things, and we don’t have the luxury of skimming the surface. There’s a cross to bear, and the Apostle Paul was talking about this in Romans 8. During the biblical time in which he lived, believers were always in life or death situations. Ephesians 6:12 (KJV) says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Believers in Paul’s time were up against this in a very real way because they were constantly under attack. By inspiration of the Spirit of God, Paul had to remind them who they were; they were more than conquerors through Christ and so are we.

Being a child of God means everything! If you weren’t a daughter of the Most High, you would probably choose a different kind of man, but because God has a plan for your life and your husband’s life, as a couple more is at stake. It is incredibly important that we demonstrate a pattern of making our relationship with God through Jesus Christ our number one priority. This guarantees that we’re increasing in spiritual strength. It means we can hear the directives God communicates regarding how to protect and maintain our marital unions.

It is also essential that we elevate the ministry of marriage above our physical and emotional desire for companionship. The institution of marriage belongs to God. He established it for His purpose. If our thinking about marital partnership doesn’t jive with a primary desire to please God first, and please our spouses second, our hearts will send the wrong signal, and the wrong person will pick it up.

God said in Isaiah 43:15-19(NLT), “I am the LORD, who opened a way through the waters, making a dry path through the sea. I called forth the mighty army of Egypt with all its chariots and horses. I drew them beneath the waves, and they drowned, their lives snuffed out like a smoldering candlewick. But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?”  This is the God we serve. He’s a God of promise! He is a God of victory! There’s nothing that compares to the plan He has for us and the victory He has already set in motion for our lives.

Things will not always be easy. There are evil forces working against our happiness and plotting to intercept our future marriages as well, but God has already worked this out. He’s already begun a new work within us, and He is sure to finish what He started. Let’s not make the mistake of overlooking the obvious. It will take an elevated way of behaving, thinking, and being to continue warming up your faith muscles. Walk with it until you can run with it. Be patient as the Lord prepares you. Pray and ask Him to tell you what you need to strengthen, and what you need to release so that you walk in the victory that Christ has already won. And if you seek the Lord with all your heart, you’ll be able to help your future husband do the same.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“The Promise of Victory” written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2021. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for, and it is the evidence of things not seen. We can’t reach out and touch the substance of faith, but it is more powerful than anything you and I can imagine. Faith allows us to step into our destinies in the Will of God, and it opens the door by which His blessings flow into our lives. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 17:20 that all we need is faith the size of a mustard seed, and we can speak to a mountain and have it move. From this we can see that our minds and hearts create the environment for faith to flourish. This means that our thoughts and emotions play an important role. So, when we’re looking to further ourselves in our ambitions and goals, particularly those involving marriage, our thoughts and emotions can help propel us forward or bring us to an abrupt halt.

Psalm 37:4(NKJV) tells us, “Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.” This verse is an invitation for us to delight ourselves in all that God’s Word says He is, but many of us don’t keep the fire that fuels this delight burning in our bellies. Not only have some of us allowed the quest for marital partnership to disappoint us, but we’ve allowed this disappointment to impact the way we view the goodness of God. When I think of this, I’m reminded of my daughter when she celebrated her last birthday. She made a calendar for the month and crossed off every day until she got to her big day. I’d never seen such an enthusiastic and excited child on her birthday than my daughter. It is a blessing to witness this child-like joy. It is exactly the kind of joy we must hold for our Dear Sweet Heavenly Father every day of our lives. He deserves this.

We decorated her bedroom while she was asleep. That morning she woke up to birthday banners and streamers everywhere. She was so joyous and happy that I didn’t need to prod her at all for school that day. The next morning, I walked into her room, still decorated from the day before, and I asked her, “How’s the birthday girl the day after her big day?” She said, “Not as excited as I was yesterday.” Her excitement had dwindled because there was no anticipation of gifts and goodies the day after.

As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we must know that God never ceases to give us goodies. However, we should also see very clearly that our faith in God can’t be only driven by what we receive from Him, but by who He is. Life will not hold much gratification from day to day if we are not thrilled beyond belief for the privilege of being His children. 1John 1:5 tells us that He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. We are His very own, His children of light, because He rescued us from darkness through the Lord Jesus Christ.

We must grow to a point that the revelation of what God has done through Christ fuels our heart with joy continually. We can never know the degree to which this joy helps us to cross paths with our future spouses, but it makes all the difference. The genuine quality of our delight in God places us squarely on the path to His goodness. Every day should carry the joy of a birthday for the believer. We can wake up with excitement in our hearts because of what God has done for us through Christ, and what He will continue to do to bring blessings and abundance into our lives.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

“Don’t Let Your Excitement Dwindle”, written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2021. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

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Recently, I heard a famous person say that the reason why his marriage didn’t last was because neither he nor his ex-wife were committed to the commitment of marriage. This blew me away! I’d never heard someone pinpoint the issue in their broken relationship so candidly. There was no blaming, hiding behind excuses or dodging responsibility, just a realization of the truth. Most people that get married, or those that have a deep desire to marry, don’t go into the commitment thinking they won’t remain committed. They go into it with an expectation that feelings and emotions they’ve experienced during the initial stage of their relationship will sustain them through any obstacles, and that these feelings will continue to grow and deepen. Many of us never really think through the possibility or inevitability that our feelings will change, and we need to manage this change in order for the relationship to thrive.

Marriage can be as beautiful and fulfilling as God ordained it to be, but He didn’t create us to be robots, so He won’t overstep or manipulate our feelings and emotions when we’re headed for trouble. This is an area that He’s given us the authority and dominion to govern by walking in the example of Jesus Christ. The reality is that we will make mistakes, and for many of us, our greatest relationship mistakes rests within the realm of our emotions.

We are born with sin in our bodies, and we are born into a sinful world. It is 100% guaranteed that we will have issues at some point. We’ve got some ingrained shortcomings passed down to us through generational sin, and these things can quickly spawn negative habit patterns. They can eventually turn into strongholds as we mature and develop into adults. A whole lot of us are oblivious to this. We don’t think about the impact of entrenched patterns, nor do we think about the emotional fall-out from having someone infringe upon them, or how we will be changed by a person continually posing the threat of triggering something we don’t like.

In Job 3:25, Job said that the thing that he feared most had come upon him. This is a lesson for us, whether we’re interested in marriage or not. Internal sore spots and wounds are ways of describing the condition of what the heart carries. The heart has storage capacity. It’s a treasury; it holds stuff, and sometimes it holds the wrong stuff. Remember when Adam and Eve sinned, and when God asked him about it, Adam said, “It’s the woman you gave me, she made me do it!” Sin ushered in shame. Before they sinned, there was no knowledge of shame and no experience of it. Their sin caused them to have this emotion, because the knowledge of evil was in their hearts and minds. This knowledge opens the door for all kinds of remnants of fear. This is what shame is, it is a derivative of fear.

Adam deflected to Eve because he didn’t want to go to the place of accountability and responsibility. It was painful, and he didn’t want to experience pain. He didn’t want to own the reality that he had violated God’s Word, bowed to the devil, and disappointed Heavenly Father. The darkness of his action was just too heavy for him to deal with. This is how those of us living today handle our baggage as well. Part of our self-preservation tactic is to deflect, blame or lash-out when a nerve is struck so that we don’t have to revisit or touch the sore place in our hearts.

This is one of the reasons God gives single people that are praying to be married a good bit of time these days prior to marriage. He wants us to deal with some of the issues that might hinder us from choosing the destiny partner He has ordained. Many of us are raised with values that don’t lend themselves to accepting responsibility and acknowledging our stuff. We don’t surrender it to the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead, we cover it up and make excuses. God has commanded that we renew our minds to the mind of Christ. This means cultivating a different way of viewing and dealing with remnants of fear.

Ephesians 5:33(NLT) tells us, “So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” A good friend of mine gave me some really good advice that will help keep God’s command in Ephesians 5:33. She said “Keep God at the center of your union, love on each other as much as possible, and don’t sweat the small stuff.” It takes prayer and a willingness to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit to come to a place in our walk in Christ where we don’t sweat the small stuff.

When two people become one, a process takes place. You just don’t get married one day and have your oneness solidified in your hearts and minds the next. You have to go through some ups and downs in life together, so that your commitment and faith in God is purified by the fire. The reality is that it’s possible and likely that your partner will hurt you in ways you can’t begin to imagine from where you’re standing today. They will know you best, and also know your most vulnerable places. Those places where fear is hiding out will be exposed in a marriage. It ain’t pretty, but we must be anchored in our commitment to God and be willing to allow His love to fill the place where hurt and fear resided. If we’re obedient, our commitment to Him will strengthen our marriages through challenging times.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Committed to the Commitment”, written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2020. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

The psalmist said in Psalm 23:3 (NKJV), “He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” This is what God will do for us. He will restore our souls, and then lead us in the path of His righteousness. The question we need to ask ourselves is are we willing to be led. For those that have been praying to cross paths with the person they will marry, it is important for them to know that our Heavenly Father hears their prayers. He’s designed the universe in such a way that the moment we begin to pray, something shifts. Things begin to come together to bless us, and a momentum starts to build. Our faith is the force that continues to move this momentum forward, but there will most definitely be some blockers along the way. Immediately upon noticing them, we must look for something in our souls to be restored. We must make sure we’re hearing what God is saying, so we know exactly what needs to be healed and continue to follow the path of His righteousness.

In Deuteronomy 1, Moses was handling some final business with the Children of Israel, because he knew he would not enter the Promise Land. In an address to them, he reviewed the journey they had been on together. It took the Children of Israel 38 years to cover a territory that should have taken them 11 days. Why? Because of their unbelief. God had promised to give them a land of milk and honey, a land that was beautiful, with good soil upon which to grow crops and increase livestock. Yet, they wouldn’t bring themselves to trust the Word of the Lord.

Exodus 6:7-8 (NLT) gives us the record of what God told Moses to tell His people. He said, “7 I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God who has freed you from your oppression in Egypt. 8 I will bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as your very own possession. I am the Lord!’”  In verse 9, we have the record of the people’s response to what God said. It tells us, “So Moses told the people of Israel what the Lord had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery.” They doubted God’s promise. Even though they were physically free, the harsh labor under the Egyptian pharaoh had put them in mental and emotional bondage. So, they wouldn’t listen to Moses and went around in circles because doubt took root in their hearts.

God’s people were slow to learn, and this is why instead of marching to victory they wandered in the wilderness almost 40 years. This wandering can happen so easily in our quest to attain what God has for us. Many of us are wandering, not understanding that it is impossible to follow the straight line of God’s righteousness when doubt is in the picture.

Healthy communication is crucial to any successful relationship. Not only must we speak the truth, we must be in a position to hear it. Our relationship with God is the most precious gift we will ever have. We need to hear what the Father is saying to us, because we need His instruction to carry out His Will. We also need to hear from Him about those places in our souls where we’re not allowing His love to rule. Very often, not hearing or perceiving God’s message is a blocker that slows our faith momentum. The Spirit of the Lord resides inside of the believer. Nothing can be closer to us than this, and if we’re not hearing the Spirit’s voice, with it being so close, how will we be good listeners to our future partners?

We must be persistent in pursuing a Word from the Lord. God is always present, and He hears our prayers. Some believers have complained that God is not speaking to them, but He never stops communicating with us. It’s you and I that have a hard time hearing His voice, because we’re so focused on other things. Jesus Christ told us in Matthew 6:33 that we must seek our Heavenly Father first, and this must be a continuous habit pattern in our lives. We are spiritual beings and the more we quiet ourselves and get still before God, the more our spiritual hearing will increase. When it comes to the revelation that we desperately need to hear, it isn’t enough to receive a word from someone else’s lips. We need to be confident that God will speak to us, and we need to be confident that we can hear Him. This is paramount to navigating a successful life as a believer, and it is one of the most important and precious essentials to spiritually preparing for the blessing of marriage.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“When Answers Don’t Come Easy” written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2020. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

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A friend and I were having dinner and noticed a young couple holding hands at the table near ours. They couldn’t have been more than about 25 or so, but they looked so happy together. The way the young man treated the woman caught my attention. When they were escorted to their table, he pulled a chair out for her, and when she got up to go to the ladies’ room, he stood up. This kind of chivalry is almost unheard of today. Many in the younger generation have never witnessed it or know it exists beyond the movies. For many sisters, such gestures aren’t important or relevant, but I was thrilled to see that some men, even young ones, have not lost this sense of honor in their hearts for women. Personally, a man doesn’t have to order my food or always stand up at the table when I do, however, honoring the love of Christ that I carry in my heart is an absolute must.

2 Corinthians 5:14(NLT) tells us, “Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life.” As single sisters and brothers desiring marriage, this is a verse of scripture that must be at the forefront of our hearts and minds. One of the reasons for this has to do with our motivation for marital partnership. Once we arrive at a place where our desire for marriage is unveiled, our journey towards crossing paths with our destiny partners begins. Many people begin this journey before they’ve cultivated an intimate relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. They may be motivated to marry out of soulish or flesh reasons, but this motivation will harm and not help their quest.

Getting to know the Lord is the most rewarding and fulfilling event in life. Nothing else in all eternity compares to the magnitude of this monumental relationship that we get to have with our Heavenly Father. We are transformed by it. Our old life is dead, and our new life begins because of Christ and what he has done for us. It is the recreation of our human-spirit through Christ that allows our connection to God. Everything that is outside the boundaries of our new spiritual reality has to catch-up to the newness we’ve received through our precious Lord and Savior. Our minds—thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors—have to be renewed to the mind of Christ. Renewal, changing the way we think, speak, think, and feel is the way we catch-up.

God will not do this for us, because He will never violate our free-will choice. He won’t come inside our brains and start changing things around. He has commanded us to renew our minds to what He says. The problem is that when it comes to our motivation and desire for marriage, we stop short and throw the process of renewing our minds under the bus. We don’t do what is required to bring our desire in alignment with the new life we’ve received.

Although we are transformed by Christ, our desire for marriage in many cases does not transform with us. It is probably the same, or perhaps has increased. But because we are never the same after our new-birth reality, the motivation for marriage must shift from pleasing ourselves to pleasing God. This is true beyond truth. God changes us from the inside out. Romans 8:39 says that nothing is capable of separating us from the love of God in Christ, because it is in Him that we live, move, and have our being. So, our desire for marriage must rise to the level of our newness in Christ. This means that we must now want what the Lord wants for us, because our lives don’t belong to us. He is Lord! He’s our Owner and always knows and does what is best. But if we have a different personal agenda operating in the background; if we’re still operating in the flesh when it comes to our desire for marriage, Romans 8:6 says this is equivalent to setting our minds on death. We wonder so often about what is blocking us from the blessing; this is it!

The potential to honor God’s purpose unlocks partnership attraction. This is where we want to be! The young couple that sat near me in the restaurant responded to each other lovingly and with honor for one another. I know this because I responded to it as well. This is how Heavenly Father created us. When the love of Christ is at work, we can’t help ourselves, we must respond to it. This is why we can’t allow our old dead life to speak from the grave. It can only speak death, and we don’t want anyone we might partner with responding to that. We should all want someone who honors the love of Christ in us, and it behooves us to be sure that it is his love, and his alone, that motivates and fuels our desire to partner.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Examining Your Motivation to Partner”, written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2020. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

It is becoming increasingly popular for women to propose to men. While commercials depicting this scenario received a thumbs-up from women’s rights organization for championing women’s options, as believers many of us are not on board. God’s people must be committed to trust and believe His Word. His Word is true, and it is also the preeminent authority on everything that pertains to life. So, we have to trust the wisdom of Proverbs 18:22, that a man who finds a wife finds a good thing. It is the man who is supposed to do the finding, not because the woman is deficient in any way, but because this is how a man obtains the Lord’s favor. But what if you’ve been found already? What if you believe he is the one, but asking for your hand in marriage just isn’t his thing?

Someone shared with me that she’s in a very similar situation. She was dating a man she believed to be the right one for her. He always said that if he was ever going to marry someone, she would be that woman, except a couple of years went by, and he never proposed. As a way to motivate his proposal, she ended the relationship, but he didn’t take the bait. She felt enough time had gone by and a few weeks ago, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Since neither of them have ever been married, and in her words, they’re not getting any younger, she went ahead and ‘put herself out there.’ She said she couldn’t imagine God would have her continue to wait year after year, so in her mind and heart, putting herself out there for the man that she loves was the right thing to do.

He didn’t meet her with any opposition, and after speaking with him, she felt relieved, but he also didn’t give her the direct answer she was hoping for. She wanted a promise from him in the form of a wedding date, and he didn’t oblige. Like many single Christian women, she has lots to offer; attractive, successful, and dependable. She believed that after laying all her emotions and good intentions out on the table, he would respond with a resounding ‘yes’, and at the very least she was hoping for perhaps a mildly reluctant “Okay”, but this didn’t happen. He didn’t choose her, and she is left to deal with the reality that he possibly never will.

The confidence of choosing well
There is nothing in all the world that compares to knowing something so positively completely that there’s no doubt in your mind. Only God can give us this level of confidence. It’s the confidence of knowing we’ve chosen well. This is why trusting Proverbs 18:22 is so important, because when God ordains something, we can have utter and complete confidence in it. Everything about relationships doesn’t have to be conventional. God created us uniquely, but we must be clear that He’s a God of supreme order, and if Christ is going to be the head of our marriages and relationships, we must be led by the Lord.

I think back to a passage of scripture in Acts 1:15-26. Joseph (also known as Justus) and called Barsabbas, was not chosen by God when it came time to replace Judas. Judas had betrayed our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and met a tragic end. So, the disciples of Jesus prayed to God to lead them in making the right decision. In Acts 1:24(NLT), they prayed, “O Lord, you know every heart.  Show us which of these men you have chosen as an apostle to replace Judas in this ministry.”  They cast their lots (votes), and God chose Matthias to become an apostle with the other eleven.

Joseph wasn’t chosen by God, and that must have been disappointing for him, but this allows us to see very clearly that our choices have implications. Even if disappointment is involved, it’s better to deal with hurt feelings in the short term than to turn our backs on God’s Will. Choices impact our lives dramatically. God knows this, and if we haven’t made Him the major participant in our choices and decisions, we stand to walk away from the destiny He’s ordained for us.

As a woman who honors herself and desires to be honored by the man she will ultimately marry, she shouldn’t except less than what the Father wants to give her. The disciples had a very important choice to make, and they didn’t leave it to chance, but depended on God for His divine leadership and guidance. We must be spiritually mature enough to do the same thing.

As born-again believers, we can receive information from Christ through God’s Holy Spirit. He will aid our decision making and help us walk according to God’s order. If we’re not yet able to discern the Spirit’s voice, we must continue to pray and be patient with ourselves to grow in Christ. Then, when we’re confident in the Spirit, we can be confident in our choices. You won’t have to ask “Why not choose me?” You’ll know that you’re with a man who enjoys God’s favor and he will consider you his greatest reward.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Why Not Choose Me?” written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2020. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

If you’ve ever read an in-depth article or watched a good video about replacing a leaky faucet or repairing an outdated piece of equipment, you know they give a ton of information. Many of them provide step-by-step instructions and a list of necessary tools to get the job done successfully. Well, when it comes to making improvements to our dating lives, it’s almost the same concept, except the repairs must begin with our thoughts. The dating arena can be challenging to navigate, and some of us have shifted to a very pessimistic mindset. If this describes your current line of thinking, it may be because you’ve met people that seem nice in the beginning, but don’t turn out to be who you thought they were—far from it. It can get a little old and bring us down. This is when we need to go to God’s Word for some necessary repairs. In His Word, God provides step-by-step instructions and a list of necessary tools. They will refuel our hopes, rekindle our excitement about the future, and get us back on track to fulfilling our dreams.

God provides His Word as our information headquarters for right living. He’s given us the example of Jesus Christ to follow, and the gift of His Holy Spirit as our teacher and guide. Believers can sometimes allow their minds to be dismissive when it comes to familiar scriptures and wisdom. We don’t mediate and study daily as we should, and when this happens, the nourishment meant for our hearts and minds slips away from us. Old thought patterns settle in, and things like believing that men can’t be trusted or that all men are cheaters become blockers to our blessing. To remove outdated thoughts that block our faith and keep us from the blessing we seek, here are a few steps to shift gears to a mindset that pleases Heavenly Father:

Step 1:  Take God at His Word.
In Proverbs 18:22(NKJV), God tells us, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the LORD.” We serve a God that is exact and precise. His Word is timeless and will forever stand as our foundation for right living, abundance, and truth. He considered the challenges of dating in modern times when He expressed this wisdom in Proverbs 18:22 thousands of years ago; for He knows the end at the very beginning. It is monumentally important that the Christian woman takes God at His Word, and that she is confident that He is not slack in any way concerning it. He has made sure there are men in every generation who #1 honor the Godly qualities of a wife, and #2 desire favor from the Lord. So if there’s anything in our minds and hearts that prevents right thinking on God’s provision in this area, we must change it.

Step 2: Keep the Word in your mind.
Hebrews 2:1(NLT) says, “So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it.” Remember, it’s our responsibility to keep God’s Word active in our hearts and minds. The Word of instruction in Joshua 1:8(NLT) still applies to believers today. This verse tells us, “Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.” God wants us to succeed. He wants us to be married and partnered up more than we desire it for ourselves. Keeping His Word is paramount to our success.

It is very easy to make poor choices and bad decisions in the area of dating. We get burned this way and lose precious time and resources on this journey. We desperately need to keep the wisdom of God’s Word in our minds, so that we remain on destiny’s path. Then, we can do as 2Corinthians 10:5 instructs and cast down vain imaginations and arguments from others, and we should even cast down those unruly thoughts that exist in our own heads. These are thoughts that place themselves higher than the knowledge of God, and we can never afford to let them dwell in our minds. That’s why doubt is so dangerous to our believing, because doubt tells a lie about the goodness of God. Instead of letting doubt rule our thoughts, Jesus Christ commands us to to capture those doubtful thoughts. We should examine them from all angles, and if they don’t line up with the mind of Christ, we need to squash them immediately. We must disconnect from the thoughts that support wrong beliefs. We can’t let them get into our hearts or cancel our commitment to keep God’s Word active in our minds.

Step 3: Survive the test.
It is critical that we understand the increase that marriage yields. It expands our territory exponentially, and to whom much is given, much is required. So many single believers complain about the wait. They don’t understand that God is building capacity within them. Marriage in modern times requires a strong spiritual foundation where the Lordship of Jesus Christ is firmly and unquestionably in place. It cannot be lost on us that the enemy doesn’t want our foundations to be strong in Christ and uses all manner of distractions to keep us from growing in the areas that we need to.

Whenever you seek to go higher in Christ, you will always face challenges to keep you down. I encourage you to cease from complaining about the wait, for God is able to make up for any lost time. Survive and surpass the test the enemy is waging against your faith. Open your eyes and be attentive to the confessions you make, the conversations you have, the thoughts you think, and the attitudes that permeate your days. Bring everything under the submission and guidance of the Holy Spirit, as you stay in God’s Word. Know that when you take your obedience and stand to the next level and remove the blockers from your life, you’ll witness a repositioning that brings you in line with the blessing of marriage.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Removing Thoughts that Block the Blessing of Marriage” written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2020. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!