Category: Encouragement and Inspiration

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.

Psalm 84:11(NLT)
“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.”

So, your boyfriend has told you that he wants to take a break, and you’re looking at him like, “Have you lost your mind?!!!” You’ve been together for two years, invested your affection, time, and resources, and he has decided that it’s not working for him. You want an explanation, right. You want to know why he allowed you to think that everything was hunky dory, and that the possibility of marriage might be somewhere down the road. You want to know why he kept taking everything you offered and never once hinted that it wasn’t enough for him or that he wasn’t happy. This man looked you in the eye and said that he needed to be out of your presence and away from your life, and he can’t even tell you exactly why.

This is hurt, frustration, anger, insecurity, and bewilderment all rolled into one. Added to this is the curiosity about what’s really going on with him. Were you duped and didn’t have a clue? Were you completely unaware of who this man really is? The questions are endless, and most of us will spend an enormous amount of time racking our brains about it. We do this because rejection knocks the wind out of our sails. It batters our self-esteem and makes us insecure about the choices and decisions we make.

When something like this occurs, we might question God and ask Him what in the world happened. We thought this man was a keeper, and we could visualize spending our lives together. We thought things were going to work out and never saw the ask for a break coming. Well, there’s a saying that we shouldn’t cry over spilled milk. The milk is on the floor, no longer drinkable, and crying will not reverse the outcome. We know this on the surface, but we’re emotional creatures. Crying over relationship issues is a common response. However, we must be confident that crying about it isn’t the only response.

We should give ourselves a short window to cry our eyes out over the relationship gone wrong, but we should also put a time limit on those tears. We most move from crying over spilled milk to formulating a plan to elevate ourselves spiritually and increase our faith.

When things don’t go right for our lives, we cry out to the Lord because we know that something is wrong. We seek Him because we’re stressed, and we don’t know how things got out of alignment. In the Old Testament, this is the situation God’s people were in when they began to cry out to Him for help. Their hearts were not with God, but they still went through the motions of worship. He was not pleased, so the release they expected didn’t materialize. God rejected their offerings and worship. He rejected their praise, and in Malachi 2:14-15(NLT), He told the men, “14 You cry out, “Why doesn’t the LORD accept my worship?” I’ll tell you why! Because the LORD witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage vows. 15 Didn’t the LORD make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth.”

The lives of God’s people got away from them because they failed to guard their hearts. This is a powerful lesson for those of us living today. To guard your heart is to make sure your faith in God remains strong. Then unexpected situations of disappointment and heartache will not leave you with the emotional instability of anxiety. You will not allow the impulses of panic and obsession to make you do things you know you shouldn’t do.

Philippians 4:6-7(ESV) states, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” To be anxious is to be overwhelmed by fears and insecurities. Anxiety is a refusal to be at peace about situations we can’t control. It can be gut-wrenching and overwhelming, and it also shows us the areas in our lives where we are not allowing God’s love to rule. He tells us not to be anxious. This is a direct commandment. Instead, we are to pray to Him in faith, with thanksgiving.

Faith and gratitude to God is the strategy that He has given us for successful living. And the faith and gratitude that He has outlined in Philippians 4:6-7 is the appropriate response to disappointment, heartbreak, and any other adversity we face. Heavenly Father instructs us to tell Him what our needs are, and to do so with faith and gratitude in our hearts. When we do this, His peace will overcome our anxieties and comfort our hearts and minds.

Relationship mistakes and the outcomes they bring are notoriously hurtful. They can set us back in many ways, but this will not happen if we strive to increase our faith in God. We must place more effort in trusting our Heavenly Father than we do in our feelings and thoughts of abandonment and despair. The root of our heartache and disappointment is a fear that we may not ever receive the kind of relationship we desire. Our Heavenly Father allowed this fear to be exposed so that we can see it for what it is and overcome it. God will not keep a good thing from you. He will help you to grow in His love so that you recognize the blessing He sends, and most importantly, so that you continue to keep your relationship with Him the greatest priority of 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.

“God Won’t Keep A Good Thing from You”, written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Many people look at Christianity and following Christ as merely a facet of culture that fits their personal philosophy. They see their way as “the way”, and like sound bites, they pick out the bits and pieces of the Bible that seem to go along with their way of thinking. A true disciple of Christ can’t remain on the sidelines like this. God won’t allow it. His plan for our individual lives will require a gradual, and sometimes quickly paced, all in kind of heart and mind. We’ll begin to view our personal philosophy as something the love of Christ will chisel down and rebuild with better tools and materials.

God’s goal is not to eradicate our personality, but to shape it into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. It will require us to believe the truth, which is the reality that Christ is life itself. Outside of him, there is no life. There is only an empty existence that will be without the possibility of spending an eternity in him. So, as every believer knows, to choose Christ is to choose love, and to choose love is to choose life—complete and lasting life!

Colossians 2:10(NLT) tells us, “So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” This completeness is everything! Knowing this truth as the beautiful dream that God planned for us long before we entered our mother’s wombs should prompt us to go deeper in faith. We should long to know Jesus Christ on a deeper level so that we can know ourselves as completely as we are known of God. We should be resolute in knowing that better relationships, self-acceptance, peace of mind, and the joy of the Lord are all found in getting to know Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.

Do you know that God is teaching you to love Him, and in so doing you are learning to love yourself? 1John 4:8(NLT) says, “But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” This is a truth great enough to send us on love’s journey for an eternity. God is love. He is love at its purest, most powerful and creative existence. His love is unconditional and has no limitations. Any sane and logically thinking person that can comprehend the breadth, width, and depth of God’s love has the capacity to love through Him. This is what 1John 4:8 is telling us. But, of course, whether or not we love through God in Christ is totally our choice.

In Mark 12:30(NLT), Jesus Christ commands, “And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” To love God with every ounce of all that we are is the first and great commandment. So, by logical deduction, we can understand that love’s path becomes very foggy when we do not love God in the way that Christ requires.

In most all cases, troubles and reparable brokenness in our relationships occur because we are not loving God according to the commandment of Christ in Mark 12:30. It is a very commonly known fact that many women make the significant man in their lives their everything. They don’t understand that God is sovereign and magnificent in every way, and He cannot accept a number two position ever.

When we bypass what God says and seek to please people over pleasing Him, our spiritual sight and hearing are impaired, because we are not allowing ourselves to be governed by His truth. Women that trust and have faith in God do not compromise or apologize for who He has made them. They must not allow anyone to squash their potential and rob them of the bright future God has ordained for their lives. To be embolden in Christ is to be ever inspired to rise to the level of his example. There are no curve outs or addendums to the victory that Jesus Christ has won for us. When we stand on God’s Word, that stand will remain a catalyst that causes things to work for our good. This is what our completeness in Christ means. It is not a philosophy, and it is exponentially more than a lifestyle. Living in Christ is living God’s truth!

Again, the path to love and blessings in a relationship can look very foggy, and we might find that we are not prepared for it. There are things about us and hiccups ahead that we can’t see from where we’re standing. Heartbreak and disappointment can cloud our view. We underestimate the degree to which we must turn ourselves around and make a shift in our thinking. 1John 5:3(ESV) states, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” When it comes to relationships, many of us believe the exact opposite. We believe that God’s commandments are burdensome, that they can’t be kept, and that we’ll lose out if we follow the path of His love.

This is never the case. Yes, we will make mistakes, but they will not rob us of the bright future ahead if we correct our course according to God’s Word. Sometimes, all it takes is a slight change in our mindset to set us on the right path. Set your thoughts to those of victory and joy in Christ. Envision what God has for you, and let it keep you always. Honor yourself by honoring God, and don’t get caught up in feelings and emotions. Trust in the Lord, and keep your eyes stayed on Him. He holds your future in His hands, and it will beautifully unfold if you remain on the course of His love.

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.

“A Bright Future Even When the Path Look Foggy”, written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Ecclesiastes 1:9-11(NLT)
“9 History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. 10 Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. 11 We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.”

Getting up every morning and doing the same thing can seem quite mundane for many of us. We fix lunches, drop off the kids at school, go to work, cook dinner, go grocery shopping, and put the kids to bed. It can feel as though nothing changes from day to day.  You start to think that life is full of repetitive tasks, and many of them go without thanks or acknowledgement. Let’s suppose that our Heavenly Father thanked you every day for doing the mundane things that your love ones sometimes take for granted. Would your attitude about your everyday routines change or remain the same?

The Book of Ecclesiastes was written by King David’s son, Solomon, who also became King of the Israelites. 1Kings 3:5 tells us that the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and in this dream, God asked Solomon, “What do you want?” Solomon replied in 1Kings 3:9(NLT), “Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?” God was very pleased with Solomon’s request and said in 1Kings 3:12(NLT), “I will give you what you asked for! I will give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else has had or ever will have!” So, King Solomon is known as the wisest man that has ever lived.

Solomon explored every facet of human life that was available to him. He thought this practice would reveal a depth of meaningfulness that would yield overflowing fulfillment, but this was not the case. Instead, he found that life was a series of endless cycles, and he complained about the sameness of it all. He understood that the souls of humans are like empty cups, and life is lacking and void without that cup being filled. As he searched the lives of thousands of individuals that were at his beck and call. Their lives were mirrors of this sameness, serving him and taking care of their families. He found that the existences of those he examined were as thankless and mundane as he found his own life to be.

Boredom is such a dangerous course because it breeds ingratitude. Solomon spent a great deal of time being enamored with the gift, instead of being captivated by the Giver. During his intellectual and recreational explorations of human life, he looked for God in things rather than seeking the things of God. He became lost in the endless sameness of it all and came away with the realization that nothing seemed new.

After writing so much about the emptiness of life, King Solomon realized that true fulfillment comes from serving God. In Ecclesiastes 12:13-14(NLT), he wrote: “13 Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. 14 God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.”

Jesus Christ taught us that it is more blessed to give than to receive. From his teaching, we can know resolutely that life is more about giving than receiving. Our God is the Great Giver, and when we give of ourselves to others, we are imitating God’s nature. This is the epiphany that Solomon ultimately realized. Life is energized through God’s love, and when sharing His love becomes the motivation for everything we do, the mundane and ordinary become infused with meaning.

Our Heavenly Father values the simple and ordinary. He didn’t intend for our lives to be complicated and weighed down by anxiety and burdensome tasks. Nehemiah 8:10 tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength, and we find this joy in seeking Him first, above all other things. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to have excitement in our lives. But we must remember that God is life. He is love, liberty, and light, and living through Jesus Christ guarantees that every moment of each day is the blessing God intends it 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.

“Simple and Ordinary Have Value”, written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Society has taught us many things, and one of them is to expect results immediately. If it seems to us that a process is delayed, we use every available resource at our disposal to speed it up. Our modern society has almost no tolerance for the reality of patience, and if people don’t receive results quickly, impatience gets the best of them. That’s when we see the worst side of human behavior. We see attitudes that our Heavenly Father commands us not to have, the ones where we try to rush people and circumstances to give us what we want. Many of us make the mistake of trying to bring these ‘in a rush’ attitudes and behaviors into our prayers and expectations regarding marriage. We want results from Heavenly Father on the double, and we want to know exactly what we can do to speed things along.

Philippians 4:6(NLT) tell us, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” This verse conveys the action steps of believing and trusting God in a way that pleases Him. We’re not to worry, and many of us view this one as a tall order. With some of us, we are more committed to worrying than we are in having faith. A brother or sister in Christ can encourage us until the cows come home, but our minds are fixed on what we perceive as reality, and we will not allow ourselves to be encouraged in the strength and power of God. Instead, we worry about the things we’ve prayed to receive. We become increasingly anxious because we understand that the timing of the results isn’t under our control. Timing is a matter of waiting on God. It’s a crucial aspect of patience, and patience is a fruit our Heavenly Father requires us to produce.

Philippians 4:6 also tells us to pray about everything and tell God what we need. This part we’ve got on lock. We know how to pray and ask God for what we want, but the wait is the part that triggers all kinds of emotions and doubts. The wait is the part that trips us up. We’re begging the Father to tell us what we can do to take the fruition of our status-change off the waiting list. Well, He hasn’t kept this a secret from us, but it’s possible we haven’t been paying attention.

Examine yourself
There’s no doubt about it, God has already told us what to do in His Word, but sometimes we need a refresher course of the basics of faith. James 2:26(NLT) tells us, “Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works.” Faith is inactive without doing the Christ-like things that make it lively. We kinda forget this as we’re trying to amp up our believing.

2Corinthians 13:5-6 The Message (MSG) challenges us, “Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it.” The rubber meets the road in this verse. The one thing that we do not want our Heavenly Father to tell us on judgment day is that we were too arrogant to test ourselves. We don’t want to hear Him say that we were coasting along, stuck in our own patterns and conditions, and we refused to learn more and do more for His Kingdom.

Too focused on the wrong groom
The marketplace is flooded with accurate teachings on God’s Word. We can research any subject covered in the Bible online and sharpen ourselves in the Word to such a degree that we could be leaps and bounds ahead of where we are. Many of us don’t do this. We’re missing the very Word that will profoundly connect us to our purpose. Yet we’re expecting God to bypass the fact that we refuse to take the test. We want Him to overlook the reality that we haven’t done anything about the test we keep failing.

Whether it’s our past or our present, some of us are so focused on a mortal man to bring us to the precipice of joy that the bliss over the return of the True Bridegroom is nowhere in our hearts. We have allowed our desire for marriage to get us caught up in the flesh. Even today, while we are praying and asking the Father to position us to meet the right man, our pasts echo the times that we compromised our love and allegiance for Christ with the wrong man repeatedly and never truly repented for it. This is not just about physical intimacy, but the many other ways we compromised as well. In past relationships, we did everything possible to spend quality time with the man but did nothing to spend quality time with Jesus. We took time off work sometimes to enjoy a day canoodling with the man but won’t read the Bible every day. Things like this reveal our heart towards God, and we can’t afford to dismiss it.

In so many instances, we’ve chosen the man over Jesus Christ, our beloved Bridegroom. Understand, it’s that one compromise against Christ—the One who rescued us from darkness, delivered us from evil, and brought us to new life—that puts us in the same category as Eve. For many women, this rebellion against Godliness is in their hearts today, and it is the thing that keeps the blessing of a husband at bay. In Colossians 1:13-14(NLT), God tells us, “13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.”  Philippians 2:9-11(NLT) says that God has elevated Jesus Christ to the place of highest honor and “gave him the name above all other names, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Jesus Christ is our King! And we have not always behaved as if we know this. We must repent from our past behavior of not honoring him with our whole hearts and whole minds. Many of us chose to bow to the wrong man in the past, a man that was not the one God ordained. So, rather than bringing a mentality of impatience to the forefront or trying to rush a prayer through, we need to take care of a little housecleaning. We must make sure that this behavior of compromising our love for Jesus Christ is completely out of hearts. When it is, our Bridegroom, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will find us with hearts that are ready to greet him when he returns. ■

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 Message. Copyright ©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

“We Can’t Rush God”, written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.