Category: Encouragement and Inspiration

As you and your special someone talk about building a future together and share your hopes and dreams, you can’t imagine your life without him. You’re at the point in the relationship that fulfills the prayer you’ve prayed for so long. You’re actually making plans for marriage with the significant man in your life, and it feels amazing. This is also a place where the strength of our personal commitment to God and His Word is often revealed. Our understanding of God’s requirement for taking care of another’s heart while still maintaining intimacy in our relationship with Him must come front and center. We must be prepared to leave some things behind and gain greater spiritual strength and character for the new part of our journey that marriage will begin.

Genesis 2:15-18(NLT) says, “15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” 18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”” Some people believed that God decided that Eve should be made right there on the spot, but this is not the way God does things. Revelation 22:13 tells us that He is Alpha and Omega, the First and the last, the beginning and the End. He is all-powerful, perfect beyond perfection, and He knows everything. He knows the end at the beginning and the beginning at the end.

God is holy and marriage is the holy union that He instituted between Adam and Eve. He took a rib from Adam’s body and made Eve, as Adam’s helpmate and wife. God assigned Adam’s role first, and then He assigned the role of Eve. God is the One with the plan and He never makes a mistake. It’s so important to understand that the Author and Creator of the institution of marriage is God. It belongs to Him, and He has set the rules for governing and maintaining its unity and longevity.

Genuine affection
One of those rules can be found in Romans 12:10(NLT). It says, “Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.” Sometimes couples confuse genuine affection with physical affection, and the two are not the same. Jesus Christ set the bar for genuine love and affection, and he demonstrated for us that this kind of love requires commitment and sacrifice. Often women are very willing to welcome a man into their lives and give him all the privileges of being husband when he has not yet made that commitment. They have not received this same level of sharing and generosity from the man. His willingness to sacrifice for her well-being and happiness hasn’t been demonstrated. So, she has not witnessed evidence of his genuine affection but has settled for physical affection, and this doesn’t equate to the level of honor a wife should receive. It wouldn’t be wise to skip over such important aspects of the love of Christ, even if talks about marriage are promising.

Work hard
Romans 12:11(NLT) says, “Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.” God requires the same level of faithfulness from the woman as He does the man, but there is no question that men have a greater responsibility to God for grounding their marriages in the love of Jesus Christ. He commands in Ephesians 5:25(NLT), “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.” Jesus Christ has set the boundaries for our expectations here. As women of faith, we need to see the man’s level of persistence and dedication. You need to see evidence that his willingness to contribute support equals or exceeds your own. 2Thessalonians 3:10(ESV) says, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” You should see this kind of character and responsibility in the man that loves you like Christ loved the church.

Ignoring huge issues

It’s easy to be committed when things are going well, but what attitudes and behaviors are you seeing when things are not going the way he’d like? Does he pout, criticize, and levy blame unfairly? At times, do you feel like he sees you as a competitor? Emotionally immature people can sometimes be vengeful and mean. They have unresolved anger and old wounds but have become masterful at covering these up. We’ve seen bits and pieces of this in the relationship, but we’ve put band-aids on what we’ve seen just to keep it moving in the direction of marriage. Ignoring these issues will be ultimately be a very costly mistake.

God tells us in Romans 12:17(NLT), “Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable.” God would not send you a man whose heart is full of resentment. The man that God sends would not be vengeful and plot evil to repay you for offenses. That’s just wrong. So, if you’ve bypassed red flags just for a walk down the aisle, understand that the band-aids you’ve put on real issues will eventually come off, and you will not be at peace when they do. Be wise about your choices and decisions. Stay in prayer and ask our precious Heavenly Father to let you know if marriage with the man you’re with is the right move for your life. ■

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.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

“Band-Aids Eventually Come Off”, written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2025. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Just as each year brings the change of seasons, life is full of seasons as well, and all of them are sent to bring newness our way. Ecclesiastes 3:1(ESV) tells us, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” Every facet of life transpires and expires on earth according to a particular timing, and this is sometimes a very challenging truth for many of us to accept. Like the rest of society, we want things on the double, and on the surface, it feels as though our impatience has pushed and accelerated the pace of life. In truth, God’s purpose drives everything that we experience and witness. Ecclesiastes 3:17(ESV) declares, “for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.” This helps us to keep our eyes open to the season we’re in. God has a purpose for it, and if we’ll be diligent to seek and humble ourselves before Him, He will reveal unimaginable treasures for our lives.

Many of us are waiting on the next season, and we’re quite bored or unsatisfied with the one we’re in. We might feel that we’ve milked it for all it’s worth, and it’s time to move on. With a weather season—winter, spring, summer, or fall—90 or so days, and it’s a wrap. We can count on seasonal changes in the weather like clockwork, but with seasons of growth and blessings, only God can set the purpose and timing of those. So, if we feel as though we’re stuck in our current place, we can almost guarantee that there are a few lessons that God has woven in this season that still need to be learned.

Sacrifice
One of those lessons is about sacrifice. Hebrews 9:22(ESV) tells us, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” There’s life in the blood; without it running throughout our veins, our bodies would only be a lifeless shell. In the very beginning, way before anything existed, God decreed the cleansing ability of blood. During the Law Administration, before Jesus Christ came to the earth, God’s people had to offer the blood sacrifices of animals as a way of covering their sins before Him. The blood of animals could not cleanse their sins or save them, so animal sacrifices were a temporary fix. The blood of Christ cleansed our sins for all eternity.

Hebrews 9:23-24(NLT) says, “23 That is why the Tabernacle and everything in it, which were copies of things in heaven, had to be purified by the blood of animals. But the real things in heaven had to be purified with far better sacrifices than the blood of animals. 24 For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf.” The sacrifice of Jesus Christ is a lasting reminder of his incredible love for us all. Through Christ, God set the benchmark for love, and no other individual or force in all of time and history is able to do what God has done.

Jesus Christ is our example. God commands us in Ephesians 5:2(NLT), “Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.” Sacrifice is necessary, and it is a huge mistake to overlook this. Life will call upon us to give up certain things, because sacrifice is the way that God has given us to make room for more.

Many of us pray and pray and pray for marriage. We’ve longed to cross paths with our future husbands, but we have not yet proven the degree to which we truly desire the thing we’ve prayed to receive. We have to know that the devil will test this; he will try to present the case that our hearts are not in it because we are not backing our faith. 1Peter 2:21(NLT) says, “For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.” Again, Jesus Christ taught us that sacrifice is necessary. Anything worth having is worth the sacrifice required to secure it. We must understand this. We must also pray and seek God for direction as we dedicate ourselves to make sacrifices and give up things that do not please Him or serve us well.

Reverence

Another extremely important lesson of every season is greater reverence and honor towards God. In the secret places of our minds and hearts, those of us that have longed and prayed for a while may be asking, “What is it, Lord? Why is it taking so long?” To answer those questions, we must consider that a failure to grow in our reverence for our Heavenly Father may be the problem. It will cause us to miss the very opportunity that positions us to receive. Right reverence for God is the key that unlocks the hidden treasures of life. It is the root of Godly character, the foundation to all our happiness, and it brings us in harmony with His Will. Many of us behave as if we don’t know this. We will go to seminars, read tons of books, go on and sign up for websites, all in an effort to capture the thing that is going to connect us with what we desire most. It’s all pointless if we fail to acknowledge God with the reverence and honor that He desires and deserves.

Secretly, some of us have persuaded ourselves that God is not as awesomely good and perfect as His Word tells us. We believe He has withheld the blessing of marriage, and that He is punishing us with the wait. In the unseen chambers of our hearts, we blame God for our unhappiness, and we believe He has shortchanged us somehow. He knows the hearts of those that feel this way, and He will never punish them, but we must know that a heart of doubt is not a heart of faith. Without faith and the good works to back it, we will not see movement.

King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 12:13(NLT), “13 That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty.” Solomon was the wisest man that ever lived. He set out on a course to explore all that there was to life and eventually fell into the depths of sadness in his travels. Thankfully, his journey did not end there. His conclusion about all that he had learned about life is stated in Ecclesiastes 12:13. It sums up our purpose on this earth, which is to reverence our Creator, the One True Living and All-Powerful God, and to obey His commandments. So, whether we’ve just begun, we’re in the middle, or close to the end, our next season is here! We’re in it! And to maximize its fullest potential, we must condition ourselves to the reality that sacrifice and great reverence for God are not chores. They are privileges that allow us to move from season to season with His grace, power, and blessings. ■

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.

“Your Next Season Is Here!”, written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2025. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

If we stuck to God’s Word and allowed it to lead, guide, and direct us when it comes to relationships that lead to marriage, every woman today that desires a husband would have one. We should never think that there aren’t enough men to go around for Godly women. That could never be true because our God deals in the exceedingly abundantly. Blessings continually flow from heaven and do so unendingly. Our Heavenly Father took care of our needs before any of us were born. You can have every confidence that there’s someone in this world that was born around the same time you were that will be just as thankful to have you in his life as you will be to be a part of his life. The distance between you and your future husband is always about your faith and what you’re doing to back it.

Ephesians 3:20-21(ESV) says, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” God has already proven to us, and to everything else He has created, that He is able to do the exceedingly abundantly. He has established the incomparable and unyielding nature of His power and put a period behind it. We sometimes forget this.

When people witness God’s power in their lives in a mighty way, many of them will think that He moved just in the nick of time in their personal circumstances. In reality, He knew about the situation ions ago, and settled it long before we came to be. Our mode of thinking and praying must get in gear with the all-knowing, all-powerful, sovereignty of His being. God knows the end at the beginning and the beginning at the end. He set the solution to all our problems in motion before even our great, great, great grandparents were born.

Genesis 2:3(ESV) says, “So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” God rested! He has already completed the ‘far more abundantly than all we can ask or think’ of Ephesians 3:20, and He completed it through Jesus Christ. John 1:1-4(ESV) tells us, “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” The “Word” in this passage is referring to Jesus Christ, the living Word of God. He was with God in the beginning and all things were made through him. God isn’t making things up as we move along. Our Heavenly Father’s plan for the universe was finished when He rested. It’s a done deal, and we must make room in our understanding for this in order to move in the power and authority of Christ. God said in Hebrews 4:3(NLT), “For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said, “In my anger I took an oath:
‘They will never enter my place of rest,’” even though this rest has been ready since he made the world.”

There is nowhere in the Bible where anyone will find that God has left the state of rest He entered into and told us about in Genesis 2:3. In truth, the rest He entered is so profound that He commanded us to make that day of His rest holy and remember it forever. So, God is still in His state of rest, and He invites all those that love, honor, and obey Him through Jesus Christ to enter into His rest.

God is brilliant beyond brilliance, magnificent beyond magnificence, and powerful beyond power. He has given us His Word, and His Word is His Will. God has already moved. He made Christ our Savior long before Adam and Eve were created or ever sinned. There’s nothing that is a surprise to Him, and He tells us in Proverbs 19:21 that we can make many plans, but His purpose will forever prevail. God’s Will and Word was established before He created humans. Again, He has already miraculously, prophetically, and meticulously moved, and He commands us to step into His unchangeable and perfect Will. He has created the universe in such a way that once we have aligned our will with His Will, everything around us will cooperate with us and we will see His Will come to pass in our lives.

If you know this, then you will read Ephesians 3:20 with amazing clarity about your power and authority in Christ. You will understand that God has moved, it’s our turn. We are the ones with dominion and authority in the earth, and He commands us to stand in it through Christ Jesus, our Lord.

God has done the exceedingly abundantly, and if we allow it, the exceedingly abundantly will show up in an amazing way in our lives. The condition of witnessing the exceedingly abundantly of Ephesians 3:20 is in this same verse. He tells us that we will witness the exceedingly abundantly “according to the power at work within us.” This means that as we think about the future spouse, and as we ponder the who, what, how, and when, we need to look in the mirror and ask, “Am I allowing the power of the Holy Spirit to be at work within me?” And if you answer, “yes”, the next question is what have you done that testifies this is so? 1Corinthians 4:20(NLT) declares, “For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.” So, the power that works in us isn’t just a lot of talk. It’s about the tangible evidence of your faith.

It’s about what you are doing right now to back your faith in God regarding what you are expecting Him to fulfill. You see, our Heavenly Father has a different idea about our potential than we do. He knows what He’s given us in Christ and tells us in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Jesus Christ who gives us strength. He tells us that when we ask Him for a blessing beyond the ones we’re currently enjoying, we should get busy thanking Him for it before it even arrives.

Jesus Christ said in Matthew 16:19(NLT), “And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.” We’re the ones with the keys, and we decide what we will or will not allow in our lives. This is up to us. We can lock ourselves out of blessings or open the door to them. If the latter is our choice, then we must do as so many others have done in God’s Word. We must back our faith by demonstrating to God how thankful we are to be saved and filled with His Holy Spirit. The way to thank Him has not changed. It’s not to focus on what we don’t have, but to focus on what we do have in Christ. We must use the authority and power of Christ to demonstrate our love for God by growing in His Word and doing the good works He has commanded us to do in the lives of others.■

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.

English Standard Version (ESV), The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

“If You Will Allow It”, written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Matthew 16:19(NLT)
“And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.” 

In Matthew 6, Jesus Christ gave the disciples a template for prayer. He told them in Matthew 6:10(NIV) to pray to God that “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” This instruction is extremely important to our understanding of God’s desire and plan for the earth. We are to pray that God’s Will is done here the same way it is carried out in heaven. In heaven, everyone has absolute faith in God, and this is the way He wants those of us living in the earth to be as well. He wants us to understand that He has a wonderful plan for our lives, and this plan will come to pass if we continue to trust Him and never lose faith in His Will.

Digesting the truths revealed in this prayer from our Lord and Savior is crucial for the single person that desires to be married. Some of us have sliced marriage out of the reality of God’s Will. We’ve placed in a category that is of lesser importance to Him, and this impedes our ability to back our faith. Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Faith does not come by hearing the word of anything else. Faith responds to God’s truth, so if we are not rightly believing the truth of God’s Word, we are denying ourselves the privilege of seeing the manifestation of our faith.

Marriage is the first institution God established for the relationship between a man and woman living in the earth. It’s an institution that belongs to God and is therefore used for His purpose. Those who do not believe in God’s truth and honor Him with their lives haven’t understood this. They walk down the aisle and ask for His blessing, but really don’t understand what they’re asking or doing. The level of disrespect for God’s Will for the institution of marriage is pervasive, so much so that is now challenging for those seeking marriage to step into it.

A man recently said to me, “My mother was never married, and I didn’t see many married couples in my neighborhood. Honestly, I grew up thinking you could just have girlfriends for the rest of your life.” This may not be articulated by many men, but the attitude matches the way many of them think about women and about marriage. God’s Will is for marriage to be life-commitment on which the birth and rearing of children that love God would rest. Most of us don’t have a hard time accepting that children are to be loved a lifetime, but modern society is trying to devalue the truth of God’s Will for husbands and wives to love each other by the same terms of depth and longevity.

Jesus Christ taught us in Matthew 16:19 that he’s given us the keys to God’s Kingdom. If we have a mindset and attitude that puts marriage outside the boundaries of a commitment to God to love someone in the same way that Jesus Christ loves us, we will not have the faith to receive it. Believing the wrong information causes us to act on it and acting on it will bind in the earth the very thing we don’t want. Many of us are doing this. We’re keeping marriage out of the picture for our lives because we’re not believing the truth about it. Instead of refusing to be taught about God’s plan for marriage, we need to seek God, stay in His presence, and permit His Will to be done in our lives by remaining committed to it.

Marriage is a done deal in heaven. That’s where it originated from. God knows His plans for it, and He knows how it should fit in your life. Proverbs 19:21(NLT) tells us, “You can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail.” He’s not making up things as we go along. The plan for our marriages were made long before we arrived on the scene. God is the One who sees to this and His purpose will override any plans we make. It’s a done deal in heaven, so make God and His Will your primary focus. He’ll take care of rewarding you with marriage when you’re spiritually prepared and have His love firmly anchored in your heart. ■

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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.

“It’s A Done Deal in Heaven”, written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Colossians 2:10 (NLT)
“So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”

When relationships don’t work out, it can be devastating to our lives, especially when it’s clear that our partner’s feelings have changed for us. When things were good, you never thought that he would betray your trust and diminish what you brought to the relationship. You were friends, and you can’t believe that your friend would cause you so much heartache. When we go through hurtful situations like this, the emotions and feelings we experience from the aftermath can be very surprising.

One of those surprising feelings is the sheer terror that we experience internally from the loss of the relationship. We don’t quite know what to do with it, and the anxiety it causes sometimes makes us do things we never thought we would. Some of us will badger the ex or worse, go after his new girlfriend. We lose it emotionally, and we’re terrified of reaching the bottom of all that pain and only find that there’s more of it.

God commands us in Psalm 37:8(NLT), “Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper–it only leads to harm.” When we use profane language, slander, and violence as a way of coping with pain, we’re providing an opening for satan to punish us more. When we take our disappointment, anger, and sadness out on others, we’re punishing ourselves by digging a deeper hole of darkness. These are actions that keep us separated from the right person that God has ordained to walk with us through life. Actions that go against the grain of God’s love are never sanctioned by Him. Jesus Christ offers us the best way to deal with our heartache, and it requires us to keep a steady head, a stable heart, and a deep commitment to prayer.

Another emotional low is the dip in our self-esteem when someone falls out of love with us. We sometimes beat ourselves up for not recognizing the signs, or we become depressed because we think we’re not enough or not loveable. Feeling this way is a sure indicator that we need to seek the Lord with all that we are. We allow a broken relationship to injure our self-esteem because we depended way too much on another individual to validate our self-worth.

Only God can validate our worth, and He did this thousands of years ago when He sent His only begotten Son to the earth to give his life as a sacrifice for our sins. If we treasure the gift of eternal life, and if we honor our relationship with God, one of the things we must make absolutely sure we never do, and that’s nullify the cross of Christ in any way. Jesus died for us, and this shows us the depth of God’s love, and the depth of Jesus’s love. If we have placed more focus on our pain than we do on the suffering of Christ, we need to make a change, and do it quickly.

1Corinthians 6:19-20(NLT) tells us, “19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”  We are God’s children. We belong to Him totally and completely. Christ purchased us from the realm of darkness with his blood. So, we should never look to another human being for validation. Do as Jesus Christ commanded the disciples in Matthew 10:15(NLT). If a household did not accept his message, he told the disciples to “shake its dust from your feet as you leave.” In other words, Jesus is instructing them to shake off the rejection, the sadness, the putting yourself down, and continue walking in the confidence of who God has made you.

We must have faith in our Heavenly Father. Be convinced of God’s love for you and let that be your anchor continually in life. We hurt down deep because we haven’t allowed that place to be exposed to the love of Jesus Christ. We can change this. We must pray for God’s healing, commit ourselves to be guided by His Holy Spirit, and have the courage and faith to push past the fear.

As a woman of God, you are never to be stuck in the quicksand of doubt and self-sabotage. Shake that loose! You are a child of the King. Let the love of Christ be your everlasting garment, and never stoop so low as to want someone that doesn’t want you. If the brother has not chosen to value you as God’s daughter and to see you as the treasure God created you to be, shake it off, bid him well, and in God’s grace, keep it moving.■

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.

“Convinced of God’s Love”, written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Frustration is an emotional state of being that can cause us to become stuck and unable to successfully move forward. It is described as a feeling of being annoyed and upset because of an inability to achieve a certain result or to change a circumstance or condition. Many single women are experiencing frustration in their desire to establish a relationship with the man God has ordained to walk with them through life. They’ve been praying to meet this man and have been doing so quite a long while. If we cut right down to the meat of the matter, we’d discover that it isn’t so much the wait that frustrates them, but it’s the inability to do anything to move their marriage agenda along that gets their goat.

Proverbs 19:21(NLT) says, “You can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail.” This verse makes it crystal clear that none of us can overstep God’s Will. What He has for you is for you, and the thing that isn’t in His Will and plan for your individual life isn’t worth having. Most of us know this, but for some reason, we’re not allowing ourselves to have peace and faith over the knowledge of God’s Will and His plan for this area of our lives. We’re not growing in faith as we should, and this is something that warrants more investigation on our parts.

The old “I know He can do it but will He do it for me?” syndrome knocks many of us off the block. It keeps us from the victorious standing of faith that God has given us in Christ. Psalm 84:11(NLT) says, “For the LORD God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.” This is God’s promise! He will not withhold good things from His children. God desires a good spouse for us more than we desire it for ourselves, and He’s not holding the blessing of marriage from anyone.

So, one of the first things that some of us must do is get our heads together regarding the blessings and promises of God. 1John 5:4(NLT) declares, “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.” Our faith in God is the key that opens every door of opportunity according to His Will and plan for our lives. We don’t get to bypass the faith of Jesus Christ and skip over to rewards. It doesn’t work that way. God’s desire is to see us mature in Christ-like character and to represent Christ in the earth in every way. This is the Father’s heart, and this is what He requires.

God doesn’t keep anything regarding the faith of Jesus Christ a secret from us. He states the requirements very clearly, and we have to get on board. It’s not complicated. It’s simple. He tells us in James 2:26(NLT), “Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works.” As a woman, your good works are those that signal the heavens and everything beneath them that you honor God supremely, and you are committed to live for Him.

Proverbs 14:1(NLT) says, “A wise woman builds her home, but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hand.” Rest assured that God is looking at how you have applied the wisdom of Proverbs 14:1 in your life. A wise woman builds. So, it’s only fitting that we look at what we’re building and ask ourselves if it is enough to sustain a marriage. Sometimes, the answer is “no”, and God wants us to lean on Him and get into His Word in a greater way so that He can teach us how to build a life, a marriage, and a family His way.

The reality is that we have a responsibility as God’s children and stewards of His blessings to represent Christ in the earth. If we’re not doing this to a degree that satisfies God’s requirement, then it’s our responsibility to reprioritize and rearrange some things in our lives so that God’s agenda is number one, and our agendas falls somewhere underneath. Jesus Christ commands us in Matthew 6:33(NLT) to “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” This is the Will of God, and it must be centerstage in our lives.

Philippians 4:19(ESV) states, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” This is God’s promise to every one of His kids. He does not lie, and not one of His promises can fall to the ground. God is faithful to His Word, and He is the only One that can supply our needs. Only He can move along the marriage agenda for our lives, and when we rest in this, frustration will fall away. So, increase your commitment to delight in God with your faith and diligence. Surrender to His care and pray that as you do, He will prepare you in every way to live according to His Will and to be the spouse that He has purposed you to be.■

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.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

“The Blessing That God Promises”, written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Ephesians 3:20(NLT)
“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”

Jesus Christ is the answer! We see this on plaques, signs, and t-shirts. We’ve heard it preached and taught for years, but the question boils down to whether we believe this amazing truth. Jesus Christ is the answer for every condition, circumstance, dilemma, and problem. He tells us in John 14:6 that he is the way, the truth, and the life. In this plain yet powerful verse, Jesus Christ lays out a fundamental strategy for successful living. He tells us that if we want to know how to live a life of abundance, peace, and joy, we must look to his example. He’s the way forward in anything we could possibly attempt to do. It’s a shame that when it comes to finding the right person to walk with us through life, we don’t cling to John 14:6 to lead us to the victory we desire.

Some of us think to ourselves, “I’ve been asking God to bless me with a husband for a long while now, and I don’t think I’m any closer to the blessing.” We may imagine all kinds of reasons why we haven’t yet crossed paths with our future husbands. Many think that it is because God is not willing to bless them or that He’s withholding the blessing of marriage. Nothing could be further from the truth. God desires to see us blessed in marriage more than we desire it for ourselves. He wants us to be our most happy and blessed self, so we should never believe that God isn’t willing to bless us in this very important area of our lives.

Recognize that God can move on our behalf in less time than a blink of an eye. He specializes in the impossible, and He goes exceedingly abundantly above anything we can ask or think. We must also realize that understanding God’s power requires us to understand the laws He has created to govern His power. God is a God of order. He will never violate His Word, and as His children, He expects us to recognize that we shouldn’t violate it either. God requires us to step into alignment and harmony with His Word, and to do this, we must be diligent to study His Word more so that we can go higher in Christ.

Jesus Christ is the door to positioning ourselves with the work that God is doing in us and with the Will of our powerful Heavenly Father. The answer to any of our desires or dilemmas in life will always come back to our Lord and Savior. The quicker we realize this, the quicker we’ll help posture ourselves to please God and receive the desires of our hearts.

If we ask God to bless us in a certain area, and we haven’t seen any movement whatsoever, then we have no other choice than to look at our individual commitment to increase in the Spirit and decrease in the flesh. Jesus Christ said in Luke 12:48(NLT), “When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.” We’re asking God to expand our lives by increasing our territory with the addition of another very important life. We’re telling Heavenly Father that we are ready to take on the responsibility of another’s heart, and that we will be diligent to help that person grow in Christ. How can we part our lips to say it when there’s no evidence it’s true? We must face the reality that we can’t help another to grow in Christ if we’re not willing to do it continually for ourselves.

Deuteronomy 11:22(NLT), God told His people living during Old Testament times, “Be careful to obey all these commands I am giving you.  Show love to the Lord your God by walking in His ways and holding tightly to Him.” Our loving Heavenly Father makes His word so very plain and easy to understand. And through His Word, He expects us to understand that He is righteous, and He has made us righteous in Christ, so that we can meet His requirements. We must walk in His ways according to the example of Christ and become more firmly rooted in the Lord Jesus with each passing day. This is what makes the difference in our lives, and it’s what transforms our status from single to married in the blink of an eye.■

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.

“In the Blink of An Eye”, written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

I glanced quickly at what I’d put on to go to my doctor’s appointment, and then a picture of my mother popped up on my phone. She was on her way to the doctor as well. This was serendipitous, and I saw it as an opportunity to learn a lesson. My mom hasn’t had an easy life, but you’d never know it by looking at her. Over 70, she’s still the most elegant and foxy lady I’ve ever known. I glanced again at what I quickly threw on that morning and said to myself, “I gotta represent God’s Kingdom better than this.” We’re busier than ever, and we all have days when we put ourselves on the back-burner. Other things take precedent, and sometimes we forget about ourselves. As single women, we may need to rethink this, because we might be sending the wrong message.

Some of us put ourselves last because deep down, this is what we feel we deserve. We’ve done it for so long that it’s a habit; we don’t even realize we’re doing it. We must remember that God has commanded us to have the mind of Christ, and this includes thinking about ourselves in the same way that Christ does. John 3:16(NIV) says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God demonstrated His overwhelming and unconditional love for us all by sending His Son to save us and give us the gift of eternal life. We are incredibly valuable to God, and therefore, we must be valuable to ourselves.

There are many women that focus all their attention on the way they dress and look. They are consumed with designer clothes and shoes and spend more time shopping than they do on seeking God. This isn’t what God wants. He wants us to walk with the confidence of knowing we mean so much to Him. This confidence in His love is an inner reality that should be displayed outwardly. In other words, we should look and carry ourselves as though we understand that we’re the Lord’s treasure.

In a nutshell, paying attention to the details of how we’re presenting ourselves means that we care about ourselves. And because we care about ourselves as best we can, others will have confidence that we will care about them with this same diligence and attentiveness. If you’re not doing it for yourself, why would someone assume you’ll do it for them. So, yes, it matters how we display the faith and grace of God, even down to the details of what we wear and how we wear it. It matters that we send the message that nothing can compare to the power of God, and through His Holy Spirit, we’re filled with His power.

Every born-again believer represents Christ in the earth, and the brilliance and wonder of all that God has made us in Christ should exude from our pores continually. We should be ignited in the energy of his power, and folks ought to be able to see this about us. They should sense it through our faith, but many of us are feeling disappointed rather than resilient and strong. We’re not representing that we’re excited about God’s awesome power and His willingness to use it for our well-being. Instead, we’re sad because we have convinced ourselves that He has put us last.

In Deuteronomy 28:13(NLT), God told His people living in Old Testament times, “If you listen to these commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom.” This was God’s promise to those who remained obedient to His Word. God is the One who makes us the head and not the tail. He’s the One who puts us on top, and this should fuel us with confidence and gratitude. Those living back in Old Testament times were servants, but believers living after the Pentecost are God’s children because we have His seed abiding within us. We are set apart for His purpose. We are His very own, and the thing that makes us so different is that we believe in His resurrection power, and we walk and live by His Holy Spirit!

What God has done for us through Jesus Christ is something to celebrate every moment of every day. This joy of the Lord should permeate everything we set our hand to do. It should enter the room before our bodies do. 1John 2:15 tells us, “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.” By the truth of this verse, we must be clear that being self-centered or obsessed with fashion and all the other worldly things isn’t pleasing to God, but our faith in Him very definitely pleases Him. He wants us to look as though we understand who He has made us in Christ. Our appearance should reflect this, so that our love and gratitude towards God is evident in how we present ourselves to others.■

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.

“Looking Confident”, written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Proverbs 18:22 (NLT)
“The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the Lord.”

“I’m not ready to get married yet. I’m still working on myself.”

You’ve probably heard this statement from some single individuals, and it has everything to do with how they view marriage and how they view themselves. A man in his early forties said this to me when he and I were talking about marriage. He’s a spiritually mature believer, and I was surprised to hear him say that he’s still not ready for marriage. He believes that he needs to work on himself, because once he marries, he doesn’t ever want to get a divorce. This is admirable by anyone’s standard. The problem is that being spiritually, mentally, and emotionally prepared to partner isn’t something we can do on our own. If a person isn’t actively pursuing and seeking God’s direction, they might not ever take that walk down the aisle.

We all have insecurities, and often those are the source of our uncertainties about getting married. So, we’re talking about internal issues with the heart and soul. These can manipulate the mind into having feelings and attitudes that do not line up with our new reality in Christ.

The work that God calls every one of His children to do is the work of their hearts, minds, and souls. It’s not about being ready for marriage, it’s about being ready to live for God through the Lord Jesus Christ. He said to his followers in Luke 9:23(NLT), “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.” God wants to see commitment from us, and it is out of this steadfast commitment to God and His Kingdom that the loyalty and unity for marriage are formed.

For many, turning from selfish ways is the issue. God’s commandment regarding working on ourselves is that we learn more about Christ and take on more of his nature. 1John 2:6(ESV) tells us that “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” So, we can see that when a believer says they’re not ready to get married because they have more work to do on themselves, this work should be about growing in Christ and putting on more of his love. If it’s not about growing in Christ, it’s an excuse to further indulge selfishness.

We are not sufficient in and of ourselves. If we were able to work on ourselves and get better outside of Christ, he would not have had to come to the earth and die. We are not qualified to do the kind of work within that is necessary to please God. And if we don’t please Him, we are outside His Will, which is the worst place of any in life to be.  2Corinthians 3:5(NKJV) affirms, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.”

We all have a work to do on ourselves, and it is the work of our hearts and minds, to put off the negative and dark behaviors, thoughts, and attitudes of our old nature, and to put on the nature of Christ, who offered himself as a sacrifice to rescue us from sin and death. The incompletion of this work cannot be offered as an excuse for delaying commitments, because again, everyone is being perfected in Christ. Our goal must be to see ourselves as being continually fortified by God through Jesus Christ. This is what makes us more than conquerors and spiritually empowered to do all the things God has purposed us to do. ■

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.

“I’m Still Working on Myself”, written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.