Find A Christian Man

Tag: devotions for singles

  • Please Help Me Remain Obedient to Your Will

    Please Help Me Remain Obedient to Your Will

    Dear Heavenly Father,

    Thank You for loving me and for always wanting what is best for me. Thank You for Your Word that gives me wisdom, and for the Holy Spirit who lives inside me and helps me when I don’t know what to do. Thank You for the people You place in my life who love me enough to tell me the truth and remind me of what Your Word says. You have been so faithful to me, Father. When I look back over my life, I can see so many times when Your way was better than mine. You knew what I needed, You knew what I didn’t need, and You were looking out for me even when I didn’t understand what You were doing.

    Please forgive me for the times I’ve known what was right and still struggled to do it. Forgive me for allowing my feelings to become stronger than my good judgment, and for the times I’ve wanted something so badly that I tried to reason around what I knew in my heart. Sometimes I can get ahead of You. Sometimes I don’t want to wait. And sometimes, Father, I simply want what I want. Please forgive me for those times when I’ve allowed a person, a relationship, or something I desire to take up more room in my heart than it should. I never want anyone or anything to have the place that belongs to You. Your Word tells me to seek You first, and I want my life and my choices to show that I really believe this.

    Father, please help me remain obedient to Your Will. Give me wisdom about the decisions and choices I make, especially when my emotions are involved. Help me not to overlook what You are trying to show me because I like someone or because I’m afraid of losing something I want. If something isn’t right for me, give me the courage to accept it. If I need to wait, help me wait. If I need to walk away, help me walk away. And when You bless me with something good, help me enjoy it without ever making the blessing more important than the One who gave it. I want to be loving and kind to the people in my life, but I want to do it according to Your loving standards and not my own. Holy Spirit, please keep me sensitive to Your voice and strong enough to follow Your leading.

    Lord Jesus, please help me follow Your example. You are the way, the truth, and the life, and I know I will never go wrong putting You first. I don’t know everything that is ahead of me, but You do, and that is why I can trust You. Help me become the kind of woman who doesn’t just know Your Word, but obeys it—even when obedience is hard, even when my feelings are pulling me in another direction, and even when I don’t understand why You are asking something of me. I want to trust that Your wisdom is greater than mine and that Your Will for my life is good.

    Thank You, Holy and Glorious Heavenly Father, for being patient with me while I grow. Thank You for correcting me, protecting me, and never leaving me to figure life out on my own. Thank You for every blessing You have given me and even for the things You have kept away from me that I may never know about. All blessings flow from You, and I want my life to please You. Please continue to help me walk in wisdom, remain obedient to Your Word, and trust You with every part of my life. In the precious and powerful name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

    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.

    “Please Help Me Remain Obedient to Your Will”, written for FindChristianMan.com©2026.  All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

  • God Sees the Best in You

    God Sees the Best in You

    When Lisa met her boyfriend Ryan, she was the heaviest she’d ever been. She was always a plus-size woman, but she thought that if she trimmed down, maybe Ryan would find her more attractive.  Men are notoriously visual creatures, and some are attracted only by physical appearance, but not all men are this way. Ryan wasn’t focused on Lisa’s waistline, as a matter of fact, he thought she was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever met. Lisa’s self-esteem was so affected by how she had been treated in other relationships, that she didn’t have confidence in herself or her relationship with Ryan. She thought if he knew about her battle with self-esteem and weight, he might find her less attractive. She was shocked when she learned the truth about how he really felt.

    Our struggles with self-esteem cannot help but spill over into our relationships with the significant man in our lives. Insecurities can manifest in all sorts of ways in a relationship—ways that you and I can never predict. Insecurities can show up as jealousy, apathy, obsession, and distrust. Sometimes these things drive a wedge that ultimately result in the demise of the relationship. It’s a fear of not being good enough the way we are. All of us should do things to improve our health and well-being, but we should do it because we love and appreciate ourselves, not because we’re trying to please someone else.

    If we pray and have faith, the Lord Jesus Christ will help us manage the journey to wholeness and feeling good about ourselves, but we should know that it is indeed a journey. For some, it takes longer than others to get to a place of self-acceptance; and as we travel to this place, we still have to keep growing spiritually and fulfilling our obligations to the faith. Dealing with insecurities, while also maintaining a relationship you hope will lead to marriage, takes an unwavering commitment to be guided by the Lord. He desires that you have someone in your life that is understanding and will support you through the process of learning to appreciate yourself.

    Many of us pay a lot of attention to the way we look. We’ll go the extra mile to ensure we’re keeping up with the latest trends in fashion and beauty, because we want to look our best. I believe Heavenly Father wants us to enjoy looking and feeling as good as we can, however, like anything in life, some of us take it to the extreme. We either become too hard on ourselves about our appearance, or we obsess about looking perfect. The danger is that whenever anything consumes too much of our energy, it subtracts from the energy we should be expending on our spiritual growth and relationship with God.

    In Hebrews 12:1(NLT), the Apostle Paul said, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” Nothing comes before our destiny in Christ, and nothing should come before carrying forth the purpose for which we were born. Every believer has a race to run, and it is important to God that we be about the business of running it.

    When God tells us to strip off the sin that weighs us down, insecurities and obsessions are very definitely included in the stuff we need to get rid of. God knows our past, present, and future; this is something that must always be in the forefront of our minds. When relationships fall apart, or when you meet someone you dig and he doesn’t dig you, if you remember that God’s objective is for you to fulfill your destiny, you won’t sweat the small stuff. You’ll be confident that things didn’t work out because this person isn’t meant to journey forward with you.

    Genesis 1:27 tells us that God created human beings in His own image. If we look a little deeper, Psalm 8:5-6(NLT) says, “5 Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. 6 You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—”This is how Heavenly Father sees us. When He looks upon our lives, He doesn’t see our flaws. He sees the Christ in us; therefore, He sees the best in us. He knows that you’re on the way to becoming who He’s destined you to be.

    He presents us with a person that will help us—a person that will help to strengthen our strengths and diminish our weaknesses. This is who Ryan was to Lisa. God presented her with someone that wouldn’t run when he saw parts of her that she didn’t want anyone to see. About six months into their relationship, he said “I’ve noticed you’ve lost weight lately; is there a particular reason why? I’m only asking because I want you to know that I love you—I loved you before you lost the weight and I love you if you never lose a pound. You’re beautiful either way to me.”

    The words that Ryan spoke were incredibly healing to her soul. This is what God means when He commands the man to love His wife as Jesus Christ loves the church. It’s an unconditional love that strengthens and helps us fulfill the Will of God for our lives. We should never doubt that when we’re patient and committed to pray and seek God’s Will, He’ll send a person across our paths that will mirror His love for us. It’s someone who helps us on our journey towards healing and wholeness. And it’s also someone who’s love will remind us continually that God wants the best for us, and He’s faithful to honor His promises.■

    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.

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

    “God Sees the Best in You”, written for findchristianman.wordpress.com. Copyright©2021. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

  • If You Know Your Worth, He Should To

    Call me old fashion, but I still truly believe in the courtship between a man and a woman. I’m vested in the ideal that a man is supposed to take the necessary steps to demonstrate to a woman, beyond a shadow of doubt, that he has more than a casual interest. And then the woman should be fully prepared to either accept his advances towards getting to know her better, or politely let him know that she’s not the woman for him. I understand that many women no longer think of relationships in this way but believe that they should pursue a man to the degree that men used to pursue women. At the end of the day, people will do what they want to do, but we have to ask ourselves as women if we’ve lost something far more valuable by compromising God’s standard in this area.

    I think we have. Self-worth isn’t something you can cultivate or advance by being assertive towards men. When we truly value ourselves, the right man will respond, and he’ll respond by doing everything in his power to be next to us. You can’t put a price on this. It’s golden, and it’s the way God set things up.

    In Matthew 16: 19 (NLT), Jesus Christ said, “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.” Take a moment and imagine how God’s Kingdom works. There is no struggle, no striving, and no drama. Everything there runs off of faith in God. No one has a need of which Heavenly Father does not attend to before they recognize the need. Angelic beings are constantly singing God’s praises, because they know that there isn’t an activity more wonderful than praising Heavenly Father. Heaven is a place more extraordinary than our imaginations can hold, and Jesus Christ has given us the keys to its Kingdom.

    The keys are no good to the dead. They can’t use them, but we’re living, and we can use the keys to tap into heaven’s resources in a dynamically spiritual way. Our Lord and Savior is schooling us on what happens when we set our minds and hearts in accordance with God’s Will. We’re unstoppable when we know who we are in Christ, and we begin to act like the ambassadors that he has made us.

    When we begin to make our relationships with God a priority by meditating on His Word daily, praying more, and learning to be led by the Spirit, we will grow and mature spiritually. Growth in the Spirit means that we rely on his inner resources more than we do the outer resources of the world.

    If we’re keeping it real, many of us choose the way of modern convenience because we think it is more expedient than growing in the spirit. We can whip out our cell phones, send a text or an email, and start an online relationship in less time than it takes to shower. We’d rather do this than to work on our souls. We lack the patience required to fast, pray, and meditate on God’s goodness; we don’t want to wait until He activates that part of us in the Spirit that causes us to step in alignment with the flow of the blessings we seek.

    There’s something about watching two people take vows before all of their family and friends, to love each other and spend the rest of their lives together; through good times and bad times. It’s just a beautiful thing to see, but too often we’re watching the union take place and then seeing it fall apart a year later. What can we learn from this? One of the things we learn is that in the end, we will not lose out by letting Jesus Christ have the steering wheel in this area of our lives. We don’t need to forgo our strength in the Lord out of a fleshly need or desire for comfort and pleasure. Know your worth, and let the Lord demonstrate it to you through a good man that is more than willing to pursue you as his future wife.■

    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.

    “If You Know Your Worth, He Should To” written for FACM, findchristianman.com©2019.  All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

  • When You Know Better, You Do Better



    Ephesians 1:17-23(NLT)
    17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

    Most of us have heard the saying, “when you know better, you do better.” After reading the passage of scripture in Ephesians 1, it’s very clear that Heavenly Father wants us to know better. He wants the eyes of our understanding to be wide open to all the rich spiritual blessings that He has given us. So the saying “when you know better, you do better” should be changed to “when you know God better, you do better.”

    In the first verse of the passage above, the feeling of longing for intimacy that God expressed through the Apostle Paul is palpable. Like many of us today, during the time of the early church, there were some areas of the faith that the people of God understood very well; but there were other areas—important areas—that they weren’t grasping. God knew that in order for them to see the greater revelation of His goodness and blessings, they needed to be enlightened. So Paul was praying that they received the supernatural anointing of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that they would recognize the bigness of God.

    Our capacity to operate through, by, and in the Holy Spirit is in proportion to the knowledge of God that we have in our arsenal. When I think of what it means to have power, I think of someone that is unstoppable, someone that has the ability to master anything and everything they put their hands on. This is God’s intention for us. The passage above tells us He desires that our eyes are open to know the hope of our calling in the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we can operate with love just as Christ did.

    The hope of our calling is no joke. The hope of it alone is super fantastic, imagine how tremendous the manifestation of it can be.

    Verse 19 tells us that the riches of the inheritance we have received as God’s holy people includes access to His incomparably great power. He has made it available for us to walk in HIS power through the Holy Spirit that indwells us. If it were only human power that we are working with, then we’d have incredible limitations, but this is not the case. God has provided through the Holy Spirit access to His unlimited power. What could be better than that?!!!!!

    God has given these extraordinary gifts to us through His beautiful and powerful Son, Jesus Christ. It is because of Jesus that we have received this inheritance of spiritual abundance. God has placed every single thing under the feet of Jesus and appointed him as the head of the church. We’re the body, we’re the church. We are complete in Christ! We don’t lack anything.

    This is who we are!!! As God’s children we are filled to capacity with the love and power of Jesus Christ. The only thing that stops most of us is that we don’t see it or we do not believe it enough to walk in it. God wants us to take Him at His Word. Can you imagine how much further in life we’d be, how many more people whose lives we would impact if we were fully persuaded that we are who God says we are?

    God wants us to be activated in the power of the Holy Spirit, because studying God’s Word and learning to walk in the Spirit with the mind of Christ is necessary to stay close to Heavenly Father. And not only this, knowing that we have access to God’s power gives us the confidence we need to love, help, and minister to others. We need to be convinced of the magnitude of God’s limitless and unconditional love, so that we can be confident enough to walk in our inheritance. Our goal should be to become the person that God has destined us to be. When this is our motivation, we’ll do better than we ever imagined.

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

    “When You Know Better, You Do Better”, written for findchristianman.com ©2019.  All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

  • Was That Really You Lord?

    “Was that really You Lord?” is one of those questions that I believe God is very use to His kids asking Him. This is especially true after we’ve made a decision that we thought was on point with the Lord, but the results speak another story entirely. Parents can identify with this. Your child does something that is totally off the wall and ends up making a huge mess of things. After being confronted they immediately give you the line, “but I thought you said I could!!!” This is the go-to they use to try and get themselves off the hook.

    Authority is key. We consider the word of the one on whose authority we depend as bond. This is the rack we hang our hats on. For children, parents are the preeminent authority figure, but sometimes, children will try to play the sneaky card. They do things of which they know the parent would not approve, and will try to manipulate their parent’s authority. They do so by saying they somehow perceived permission, when permission was never given. No new tricks under the sun; this one is classic.

    Instinctively we know that if permission is given, the outcome is not entirely one in which we will bear total responsibility. Part of the outcome can be attributed to the one in authority; the one on whose permission we rested our foray into the unknown. The reasoning behind this is: “It’s not totally my fault if I took a risk, and it didn’t pan out. I did it because I received permission, and I equated permission from my authority figure to the promise of a safe and positive outcome.” This is the kind of mentality we bring into our relationship with God at times. But we must be careful, because sometimes we attribute signs from the devil as God’s greenlight.

    Hebrews 4:11-13(NLT) says, “11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. 

    12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

    As a people who really and truly love God, we need to know that He has provided a way for us enter into rest. Rest is a state of being where there isn’t any chaos; there’s no indifference or struggle. There is a peace that comes with the rest that God provides. This is His goal for us. He tells us that we can’t get to this place of peaceful rest through disobedience. It can only be accessed through obedience.

    Heavenly Father goes on to tell us in Hebrew 4:11 that His Word is alive! It’s not asleep, so there can be no ifs, ands, and buts about the doctrine, instructions, and corrections that His Word provides.  God’s Word is perfect and definitive. When it comes to the whopper conundrums that we sometimes end up with, make no mistake about it, there are instances when we genuinely believe that we’ve heard from God. We believe that He’s given us a green light to proceed. Then, we end up making one of the biggest mistakes of our lives.

    “Was that really you Lord? Didn’t You tell me he was the one? Didn’t You tell me it was okay to marry this man? Why am I now facing this awful situation? I thought You told me that I could proceed and You would make sure that I’d be blessed?” Our Heavenly Father knows the decisions we will make even before we make them. Not only does He know them, but He already has seen the outcome.  In truth, when we leap into making decisions, thinking that God has given us the green light and things don’t end up being the absolute best for us, we should then realize a few things. Chief among them is how much we may have compromised ourselves through impatience. We didn’t give ourselves time to really find out God’s agenda for our lives.

    The Word of God is sharper than any sword because it cuts through the confusion we enter into when we don’t know what to do or which way to turn. This is why we must study His Word. As we get into God’s Word, we can receive wisdom from other sources as well, and these sources will also back up the Word we’ve received. Sometimes through a close friend, family member or even a co-worker, God can help to zap us into consciousness. Some of us begin to recognize the help, but others of us remain asleep and refuse to wake up about what we’re doing. We have a habit of intentionally avoiding what we know is right because we want something on the double.

    Discernment takes wisdom and through wisdom we should know that if we are committed to a life of obedience, God is willing and able to keep our feet from falling in any situation. We are never the worse for being patient. And even when we make the mistake of impatience…when our hearts may get a little bruised from time to time, we’re still in the game of living and learning; and this is always a blessing we should never take for granted.

    So always remember that nothing is ever hidden from God’s sight, and everything with Him is uncovered and laid bare before Him. He will not make decisions for us. We can’t ask God to make guarantees that are already provided through obedience to His Word. Hebrews 4:13 tells us that we are the ones that must give account of our actions. He has made it very plain that He doesn’t keep from us the information we need to hear. He’s told us that His Word is alive and active. Therefore, following His Word will always lead us down the right path, and His Word will never lead us astray. So let’s be very real about this one, because it’s never about whether or not He’s spoken to us. It is always about our willingness to have patience, study, to listen and obey.■

    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.

    “Was That Really You Lord?” written for findchristianman.com© 2019. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.  

  • You’re All in, But Him, Not So Much

    Gifts of expensive jewelry, bouquets of beautiful flowers, and dinners at nice restaurants; these are the tangible things that a lot of us associate with a man who is really interested in the woman he’s seeing. Keeping it real, these things can’t hurt, but the true foundation of the relationship is actually how a man interacts with you. The ‘umph’ in a relationship is when both partners are validating each other’s thoughts and feelings. In other words, it’s when he lets you know undeniably, that you are the woman he honors above all others.

    Of course, we should never make any person our all in all. Only God deserves this place in our lives, but Heavenly Father wants every woman to experience what it feels like to be genuinely valued and appreciated supremely. The man that chooses her as the object of his affection has the distinct responsibility to validate her in this way, and she has the responsibility for doing the same for him.

    Relationships lasts when both people are mutual in their degree of willingness to share and interact with each other while having a goal of increasing their love and support in mind. If you’re all in, and the other person isn’t quite there yet, you’re probably not going to receive the validation you need, and you shouldn’t settle for this.

    God said in Jeremiah 29:11(NLT), “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord.  “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Heavenly Father has your back. He has a plan for you, and it is a good one. God only wants what’s best for us, and He knows what it will take to bless us. We can trust Him to take care of our needs, and we can know resolutely that He would not have us picking up crumbs on the floor when He has prepared a feast at the table.

    Be firm in your conviction to receive quality love, but also measure it against the love and support you’re willing to extend yourself. Recognize when you just don’t do it for the other person. Let him go in grace while you do the same. His refusal to be all in is a sure indication that he’s not yet capable of recognizing the jewel that is ‘you’. This isn’t a bad thing at all. You want someone who appreciates you and knows the importance of validating it in a loving and Godly way. So always remember that God wants the best for you and continue walking in faith until you receive it.

    Written for findchristianman.com©2019.  All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

  • Choose Love

    Deuteronomy 11:26-28 (NLT) “Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse! 27 You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today. 28 But you will be cursed if you reject the commands of the Lord your God and turn away from him and worship gods you have not known before.”

    In Deuteronomy 11:26-28 (NLT), Moses warned the Children of Israel to be careful to obey the commands God had given them. If you think of all the miraculous signs and wonders by the hand of God they had seen, it is hard to imagine why the Israelites would need to be warned. God had given them specific commandments, and it should have been enough for them to simply hear and obey, but that wasn’t the case. Repeatedly, God reminded them of His delivering power, because they would not listen to or heed His instructions.

    The Children of Israel had a choice. They could choose to love the Lord their God by walking in His ways and holding tightly to Him, or they could allow their hearts to be deceived, and worship other idol gods. This is a no-brainer, but throughout biblical history, we see God’s people deviating time after time from what they knew to be true.

    As sisters desiring marriage, many of us will abdicate our responsibility to God and fall into disobedience. We know what God’s Word says, but we will place the man’s desire for pleasure over God’s desire for us to honor our temples.

    “And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” Mark 12:30(NLT)

    God didn’t want robots. He wanted a family. He wanted children that would love Him because they chose to, not because they had to. Love is a decision. We make the choice as to whether we will walk in God’s love through obedience to His Word and be blessed, or whether we will love the world and forfeit the destiny God has given us.

    A cursed life is one that exists when a person chooses to be blinded from the truth. Jesus Christ told us in John 14:6 that he is the way, the truth, and the life. The world has refused him; therefore, the world has refused the truth.

    We don’t need to do anything but look at the news to see how foolish and perilous the world has become as a result of refusing to accept Jesus Christ. It is riddled with fear, lust, envy, jealousy and pain, all symptoms of a cursed life. This is what a life looks like without the foundation of God’s love. As believers, we must choose to obey God’s Word. Let’s make a greater commitment to stand upon it. It isn’t burdensome. It’s a choice to more fully love God, and to love others His way.

    “Choose Love” written for FindChristianMan.com©2019. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

  • 3 Answers that Prove You’re Ready for the Blessing

    Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence that we have the thing we hope to receive before it actually comes to fruition. Faith is the title deed to the blessings we are confident we’ll possess. God has charged you and I with the responsibility of holding a mental and emotional title deed in our minds and hearts through faith. This title deed of faith is a rightful claim to the blessings we’re praying to receive. We hold it in our minds and hearts, and it gives us the same level of ownership in the spiritual realm as a deed written on paper for something we actually own, like a car or a house. In a literal sense, we know that once we have a title deed from a bank, it’s proof to all that will see it that the property, by all legal accounts, is rightfully ours. Faith works in much the same way.

    In the business arena, a purchasing contract signals to everyone that we have an intention to take possession of something valuable. After we have proven the capacity to ethically procure the property, we sign on the dotted line. Then, after the contractual period has lapsed, if we have abided by all the requirements, maintained the care of the property, and made all the payments necessary to contractually own it outright, we take possession. This is a process that takes place in the natural realm. We expect it when we’re looking to own something valuable. Faith has a process too. Sometimes it takes a long while to manifest results, or it can take as little time as a blink of an eye.

    The process of legally taking ownership of a valuable and tangible asset can be a lengthy process. In the case of a house in the United States, it can take up to and over 30 years. I will venture to say that most of us have never waited that long for a blessing to come into fruition, but if that is what it requires, we should be ready and committed enough to stand on God’s Word until the promise materializes. If you’ve done the mental and emotional work of faith, and you feel as though the time that has passed seems beyond the processing period required, consider that God is still building your capacity to take ownership. He wants to expand your vision regarding the blessing you seek. Answering the following questions might help you to gain greater focus and ultimately get in synch with what Heavenly Father has stored up for you.

    Are my wants and my needs in balance?
    The blessings that we are hoping to receive are not too big for God. And I don’t believe that God ever tells us ‘NO’ when we ask according to His Will. Our God is an excellent and masterful Giver. He knows that sometimes we want things that far exceed our need for them. Jesus Christ tells us in Luke 1:37 that nothing is impossible with God. He is a wonderful and loving Heavenly Father, and He is our sufficiency. It is His good pleasure to bless His people, but this doesn’t mean that we will take possession of everything we desire, WHEN we desire it.

    God wants you and I to be wise recipients, and He wants to bless us with blessings that are most beneficial for our over-all wellbeing. This means that we need to learn to spiritually discern what is right for our lives. God also expects that we will use the wisdom of balance. This means we shouldn’t pray to receive blessings that exceed the level of our ability to put them to good use. Heaven’s economy is not one of greed, but of balance and preciseness. It is important for us to really think about our desires from this perspective, and then allow the Holy Spirit to guide us into greater areas of wisdom and understanding regarding the blessings we’re seeking.

    Have I held my desires more tightly than I have my commitment to God?
    The answer to this question is usually one that comes from a place that most of us do not explore on a regular basis. It’s a place where the secret motives of our hearts are stored. Jeremiah 17:9 says that we can never know the heart fully, because it contains the potential for great levels of deceitfulness. The heart is a very important place in our souls. It’s at the core of our identity, and often this is a place where we hold things so tightly and for so long, that we don’t realize the scope and length of our grip. We cannot continue in a state of unconsciousness about what we’re holding on to.

    God has designed the universe in such a way that when we see clearer spiritually, we see better naturally. The things that were hidden from us before will come into full view. It’s this ‘full view’ that we should be seeking more than anything else, because it is entirely possible that we’re so consumed with what we want that it has obscured our vision when it comes to the things of God. If this is the case, we need to come into an awareness about it. Sometimes our desire to marry is rooted in insecurities, and we’re looking to someone other than Jesus Christ to make us whole. Humans are not capable of doing this for each other. We’re created to be complete in Christ and must look to him before any other person. Our needs are fulfilled by God’s love. He is our sufficiency. So we should never look to another human being to do what only God can do for us.

    Have you proven your commitment to maintain the blessings you seek?
    All of us think we’re ready to handle the blessings we’re asking God for, but it isn’t enough to think it, or even to speak it. Yes, we’ve got to make positive confessions, renew our minds to God’s Word, and put some positive action behind the title deed of faith that we’re holding, but we also must have a proven commitment to maintain the blessings we seek. This means that we have demonstrated a history of taking care of what we currently have in our possession.

    The most apparent demonstration of preparedness to handle blessings is our attention to detail. Most of us won’t admit this, but there are details in our daily lives that we drastically overlook and neglect because our minds haven’t been renewed in places they should be. We simply don’t think about doing certain things, and because we don’t, certain opportunities are hidden from us. We prove our preparedness, as well as our commitment to make room for blessings, by increasing in spiritual strength. An increase in spiritual strength equates to an increased spiritual awareness. We can’t rely only on our human strength and knowledge. We’ve done that and it’s not working for us. God longs to show us what He can do for-in-by-through and with us through the Holy Spirit that dwells within. We must seek the Spirit’s guidance continually. He will help us come into consciousness about important details and increase our level of awareness. This will greatly help us in the area of preparing for marriage.

    1 Corinthians 2:10 (NLT) says, “But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.” There is so much we could know, but don’t know, because we will not seek to grow in the Spirit. Jesus Christ wants to live through us. He wants to bless others through our blessings, and he accomplishes this through the Spirit that indwells us. The Spirit will do for us what we can never do for ourselves. So the greatest gift we can give ourselves is to seek to grow in the Spirit. He will help us press-in and hold the title deed of faith in our minds. Then we’ll be poised to take possession of the blessings God has for us.■

    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.

    “3 Answers that Prove You’re Ready for the Blessing” written for findchristianman.com©2019.  All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

  • Search Me Lord

    Search Me Lord

    Psalm 139:23-24 (NLT)
    23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything in me that offends you.

    When you have a child, there is nothing you won’t do to protect them, because you love them. You believe you know your child through and through. If someone asked you to tell them everything there is to know about your child, you could probably give them a long list of characteristics and qualities in great detail, but even as well as we think we know our kids, they still surprise us. We are imperfect human beings with flaws and habit patterns that cause us to surprise even ourselves at times. None of us could ever possibly know our own selves nearly as well as we claim too. We are forever beings—eternal. When you think about the reality that God knew us from the beginning, and He knows us all the way through an endless eternity, it’s pretty mind boggling.

    Heavenly Father knew us before we were formed in our mother’s womb. He knows our every thought, and even the number of hairs on our heads. He knows what we’re going to say or do before we say or do it. So why, then, did the Psalmist ask God to search him, when God already knew all there is to know about him?

    God’s love is infinitely above the love from a parent or a spouse. His love cannot be compared to any that we will experience from another human being. David asked that God would search his heart because he had confidence in Heavenly Father. He knew God’s power. He knew God’s omnipotence, and that God uses all that He is to lavish us in His care. David also understood that there are times when we get in our own way. We block ourselves from the very blessings we desire.

    Some of us want to be married so very badly, or maybe it is something else that we’ve been praying a long time to receive. As sons and daughters of God, we should know enough about the way of Christ to understand that changes will continually need to be made; this is the nature of life and growth. You and I don’t always pick up on the things that we need to change, but when we have a heart like David—when our faith is truly in God, we can be confident enough to ask God to search our hearts.

    We’re asking God to take us on an inward journey. We’re asking Him to reveal something to us internally that has been hidden from our consciousness—something that will help us to know ourselves better through Christ, so that we can be better for him and for ourselves.

    All of us should ask God to search us for anything that offends Him. He will most assuredly reveal it, and when He does, we will see that God has been preparing us to receive the desires of our hearts all along.■

    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.

    “Search Me Lord” written for findchristianman.com©2019.  All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

  • Actions and Consequences

    Actions and Consequences

    Romans 8:28(NKJV) is one among many jewels in the crown of knowledge and wisdom that God has given us. It says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” When we think of this verse, we should try imagining life as one big stirring pot of every kind of circumstance one can imagine; both advantageous, and not so much. If our aim is to please God and to grow closer to Him, no matter how vigorous or slowly we stir the contents of this pot—no matter how heated or lukewarm the contents may be, the ultimate outcome is always going to be something delicious.

    Romans 8:28 is God’s guarantee, yet it is often so difficult for many of us to believe, particularly when it comes to crossing paths with the person we will ultimately marry. Some of us can become so emotionally distraught with the ups and downs of dating and misfits, that we’re too exhausted to give ‘hope’ the fighting chance it deserves. There’s a remedy for this, and truly it is the only one that makes any sense. If you’ve been praying and praying, year after year, and it doesn’t feel as if you’ve made significant headway towards the proverbial trip down the aisle, the truth is that indeed you have made strides; perhaps some that you haven’t yet recognized.

    fcm-romans-8-28You’ve probably learned quite a bit about what you don’t like and what you’re unwilling to tolerate in the person you want to marry. The depth and meaningfulness of qualities like loyalty, devotion, gentleness, kindness, and affection are probably now more prominent in your pursuit of a Godly partner than those of pretty eyes, dimples, and a full head of hair. But even though you’ve gained this knowledge, still, you can’t fully know from where you stand today the kind of spiritual, emotional, and mental tenacity that it requires for two people to hold a union intact. We all think we know, but really, we have no idea.

    The process of spiritual preparation for marriage is an incredibly important subject for anyone desiring to be a spouse. Sometimes we forget that our Heavenly Father has a standard, and His standard is such that all things are going to coagulate, cooperate, and gel together in such a way that our good rises to the top.

    This isn’t going to just pop out of nowhere. There’s a human element to this equation, and that means that the Holy Spirit absolutely has to be involved if success is the goal. He, the gift, is going to guide us to the finish line. He’s our teacher, so learning some serious lessons absolutely has to be a part of the equation too. One of the lessons required to be fully and tightly fitted in our arsenal of wisdom and faith is the lesson of Cause and Effect.

    Often, it’s not an easy pill to swallow, but swallow it we must because it is simply the way God designed the universe to work; and no matter how much we may not like it at times, the end result will always be to His glory. There is a cause and effect to everything in life, and when you come to understand this, you’ll see the thread of truth that runs through every triumph and defeat of your existence.

    Simply put, when your heart is to please God and bless others, not only will you see it reflected in your life, but so will others around you as well. But lest we forget, there’s a flip side to this coin. When you have ugliness in your heart, such as bitterness, anger, and arrogance; situations and people will act as a mirror, reflecting the bad stuff that you really wouldn’t want.

    To see this more clearly, consider the message that God gave the prophet, Zephaniah, to give to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Manasseh and his son Amon, notorious idol worshippers, were two of the most wicked kings of Judah and Jerusalem. During their reign the people turned their backs on God, ceased to worship Him, and began to pick up the practices of Manasseh and Amon and worshipped idol Gods. They became a society of people that were corrupt and immoral in every sense of the word.

    Zephaniah warned them of “the day of the Lord”, and in Zephaniah 1:2,3, 12-14 (The Message), he gave them a message from Heavenly Father:

    2 “I’m going to make a clean sweep of the earth, a thorough housecleaning.” God’s Decree.

    3 “Men and women and animals, including birds and fish—Anything and everything that causes sin—will go, but especially people.

    12-14 On Judgment Day, I’ll search through every closet and alley in Jerusalem. I’ll find and punish those who are sitting it out, fat and lazy, amusing themselves and taking it easy, Who think, ‘God doesn’t do anything, good or bad. He isn’t involved, so neither are we.’ But just wait. They’ll lose everything they have, money and house and land.

    Some of us have imagined that God would leave His throne just to punish these folks for their deplorable and evil behavior, but God designed the universe to hurl back at us the full brunt (and then some) of the stuff that we give it, whether it’s positive or negative. Heavenly Father allows us to live our lives just the way we choose – it’s our free-will choice, and He will not violate it. His love doesn’t shove or push, instead God’s love is pure and kind. It isn’t puffed up nor does His love seek revenge. But if we choose to practice darkness, if we play the game of deceit, then we give the devil the ammunition he needs to throw darts of darkness and deceit back at us; and his darts sting far worse than ours.

    When we turn away from God’s love through our actions, our lives begin to deteriorate rapidly, and unless we recognize this our lives will continue to spiral downward. You may ask yourself, “But why would God want His people to suffer?” God doesn’t cause pain and suffering, but He will allow it; and often it is a consequence for disobedience and sin.

    There are so many needless divorces out there because couples have refused or neglected to take responsibility for their actions and to be accountable for the hurt they’ve spearheaded by putting the wrong stuff out there. God’s laws dictate that if you keep doing the same things you’re doing; you’re going to keep getting the same things you’re getting. He wants us to know that if we don’t like the consequences we’re getting, we can utilize the power of His love to change them. This is a lesson that must be firmly etched in your heart and mind. When it is, you can have confidence that one day soon you’ll have a marriage where all things will continually work together for your family’s good. ■

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

    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.

    “Actions and Consequences” written for findchristianman.com©2019.  All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!