Luke 12:48(NLT) “But someone who does not know, and then does something wrong, will be punished only lightly. 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.”
Many Christian women are resorting to desperate measures to satisfy their desire for partnership. Years ago, I worked with a woman that had been accustomed to that practice. She was struggling as a new believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Finally meeting someone she liked, she confided in me about her new relationship and the difficulties she faced while dating and pursuing a relationship with God. I told her it was completely understandable because I too had gone through similar circumstances. She said to me, “I can’t imagine you’d ever have difficulty because you’ve been a believer for so long.” Many people assume that Christian believers that have been on this journey awhile have it easy. They don’t think we struggle to keep the faith or that we are challenged with temptation. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Whether we’re new to the faith or seasoned believers, significant relationships can be a very challenging area. We all have a cross to bear, and it demands us to release our old man habits. It’s those negative attitudes, addictions, toxic emotions, and immoral and unproductive thoughts, conversations, and behaviors that are totally foreign to our new nature in Christ. God tells us in Colossians 3:9-10(NLT), “9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. 10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.”
Many of us haven’t lined up with Colossians 3:9-10. Even those of us that have been on this Christian journey a while are still struggling to release parts of our old sinful nature that continue to hold us back and keep our blessings at bay. God’s desire is that we become spiritually strengthen through His Word before we get into serious relationships. He knows the complexities and knows that we need His faith, love, and power to navigate through them. Some of us veterans ignore this.
The quantity of time on this Christian journey isn’t nearly as important as the quality of our relationship with God. What matters most is the depth of our love for Him and our allegiance to express our faith in Him through the love we demonstrate to others daily. Our increasing faith in God’s love strengthens and equips us to surrender all, and God’s expectation is that we will come to a place in our walk in Christ where we long for Him more than we do for any other thing or person.
When our love for God is where it needs to be, we will not view sin or its temptations as a very difficult thing. The love of God will be the most important treasure in our lives. Our faith will be at a level of understanding that what we gain through Godliness is infinitely greater than old nature we release and the baggage we surrender. Many of us are not believing this way.
We fear that the man won’t love us if we refuse him or refuse to sin with him. The thing that must be etched in our hearts in gold is that God’s righteousness is the jewel of eternity. Every woman whose status is currently single must get this. She must understand that nothing and no one compares to God. He’s brilliant beyond brilliance, perfect beyond perfection, beautiful beyond beauty, and lovely beyond loveliness. There’s nothing a man can give you that is anywhere near what the Father can and wants to give you. So, a man’s desire to take you out of Godliness should never supersede your desire to be holy.
There are many sisters out there that feel like the woman I knew who struggled with living holy in a relationship with a man that isn’t bound by marriage. Some would say that it’s crazy in this day and age to live by God’s standard in a boyfriend and girlfriend relationship. We can think however we choose, but God doesn’t change and neither does His standard. It isn’t enough to know that no one compares to Him, your actions must back up this reality every day of your life.
God is wonderful and following His example through Christ is our greatest privilege. There are many women that are not trusting God with all their hearts and not following where He leads; instead they are leaning on their own understanding. This more than any other thing is the reason for the imprisonment of never ending singledom. As a Christian woman desiring marriage, God requires our highest level of love and commitment to Him. He must be first in our hearts. In other words, you must have a heart that seeks to please Him above all else. It is what He looks for in every believing woman that will be presented to a man as a treasure of a 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.
“No One Compares to God”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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