Month: June 2020

Spiritually preparing for marriage June 24, 2020July 11, 2020

The Constant Fight

Galatians 5:16-17(NLT)
“16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.”

The struggle is real, there’s no doubt about it. It’s a fight to keep our flesh in check and to make sure we’re not valuing what the flesh wants higher than what our individual souls need. God doesn’t keep the fight a secret. He makes it very clear in Galatians 5:17 that there’s a fight going on within our own physical bodies. We have a sinful nature, and it will fight against the Holy Spirit within. The Spirit only wants to do good and help us, but the sinful nature wants to do those things that are against what God wants. Heavenly Father always wants the best for His children. He wants to preserve us, and keep our lives thriving, prospering, and delighting in Christ.

Essentially, we have two wills working against one another all the time. So, as God’s children we have an important choice to make on a daily basis; who is going to win, the flesh or the Spirit? This seems like a very simple choice, but it is not. We have an enemy, the devil, who has tactics that can be very subtle and undetectable. We are often tricked by him to give in to what our sinful nature craves. As single Christian women, one of the devil’s tricks is to get us to value our desire to partner higher than we do our desire to please God.

This is a highly contestable fight, because on the one hand is our great desire to partner, and on the other hand is the Spirit’s desire to guide us, so that we partner in a way that is pleasing to God and fulfilling to us as well. One of the ways that we can resist the devil and gain momentum towards the manifestation of our desires is to recognize a few things about the way in which the Spirit guides.

John 16:13 tells us that the Spirit will guide us into all truth. For you and I, the truth will always lead us back to God in Christ and the call He has placed on our lives. We will never escape the reality of this, and we shouldn’t want to, because our continued journey towards higher heights and living a great life is contained in the reality of our destiny in Christ. A half-hearted trust in this will not cut it; we must be fully persuaded in the truth that God wants the best for us, and by following His direction, we can have it.

From where we stand this moment, many of us don’t know all the details of our destinies in God’s plan. But on one thing we can be absolutely sure, the indwelling Holy Spirit knows, and this is why it is so important to let him guide you. He knows who your husband is, and he knows where he is. Most importantly, he knows what you should do in order to prepare to partner with your future husband. He will reveal these things to you, but you have to pay attention. Through your everyday experiences, he will give you promptings and information that is extremely useful towards your quest to be a spouse.

This season that you’re in may feel like a drag-down, knock-out. You might be weary from the wait, and you may be emotionally exhausted from all the stuff you’ve gone through in past relationships. Yes, it’s a constant fight, but it is a fight you can win, and have won through Jesus Christ! God knows your pain, and He wants you to give yourself a fighting chance by leaning totally on the Spirit. You’ve leaned on your flesh. You’ve leaned on your emotions. You’ve leaned on the men you thought were the one. It’s time for a better approach. Let the Spirit guide you, and trust totally in the reality that he knows where you ought to be, and who you ought to be with. ■

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.

Keeping it Real!, Spiritually preparing for marriage June 10, 2020June 11, 2020

Dust It off and Keep It Moving

John 3:20-21(NLT)
“All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

I had a conversation with my nephew a couple of weeks ago, and he said something that was really astounding to me. It was a revelation, and immediately drew my attention to John 3:20-21 like a lightning rod. For a while, he noticed something about some of his friends. Whenever they’d stop by, they would only go as far as the front steps of his home. He was kind and courteous, and of course invited them in, but they always declined and would say they’d catch up with him later. He mentioned that although he’d spoken to them about Jesus Christ, they never really had an interest, and didn’t care to know more about our Lord and Savior.

My nephew concluded that some of his friends were refusing the light and as a result, could not tolerate what the light of Christ exposes. Based on the truth that our Blessed Lord and Savior shared with us in John 3:20-21, my nephew is exactly right. When you love the Lord, and carry His love in your heart, it will either attract the light to you or it will certainly dispel the darkness around you. The truth of this passage in John 3 declares it emphatically, and says that all who do evil hate the light.

God has given every Christian the responsibility to discern what is of His Kingdom, and what is from the kingdom of darkness. Most of us are able to do this, but we sometimes shut-off our spiritual senses. We want to maintain our associations with darkness, and we enjoy the company of those who do not hunger for righteousness. As single women desiring to be married, we must be incredibly careful about this. The enemy knows our weaknesses, and he knows how to lure us in and trap us. We should not make the dangerous mistake of assuming he will be merciful in his attack. If we have not properly guarded our hearts, and have made an emotional investment in someone who secretly hates the light, the consequences are very painful and last longer than any of us would care to imagine.

Our Lord and Savior didn’t mince words when it comes to light and darkness. The Pharisees were an extremely arrogant group of people who hated Jesus Christ. They were blinded by satan, and would try and trap Jesus Christ with questions. If he gave an answer against their beliefs and laws, they would attempt to imprison him, but he was so razor-sharp that they were never able to manipulate his wisdom. In John 8:43-45(NLT), he told the Pharisees, “Why can’t you understand what I am saying? It’s because you can’t even hear me! For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies. So when I tell the truth, you just naturally don’t believe me!”

The devil hates the light, and so does his children. God is not telling us to isolate ourselves from those who desperately need to hear the truth, but He has told us in Romans 12:2 that we must never let anything or anyone in the world conform us. Instead, we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are beacons of light and love. 1Thessalonians 5:5(NLT) tells us, “For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night.” So our responsibility is to share the gospel with those who thirst after it, but for those who deny it or want no parts of it, we’re to dust off any residue of their darkness and keep it moving.

Encouragement and Inspiration June 4, 2020June 10, 2020

Centered on Christ

Relationships between men and women can feel conditional at times. You may feel that if you don’t do something to his or her liking, their level of love and affection for you might decrease. Most of us realize that relationships involve give and take. The optimum balance would be 100% from both partners, but if we’re honest, it doesn’t always turn out this way. In fact, you might have been in relationships where you did most of the giving, and he did most of the taking. Not cool. That’s why it’s so invigorating to know that our Heavenly Father’s love isn’t like that. His love is unconditional; He loves us no matter what.

We don’t have to be perfect, but one of the things that is required of us as God’s children is to have faith and trust in Him. Even when we do things that fall short of His love and grace, He still loves us the same, and it is important that we understand that only He can give us a love like this.

I’ve witnessed actions of women who have such a desire to be loved that they will forgo all sense of reason for the sake of having the attention of the man in their lives. This is motivated from fear, and not love. Any relationship worth having will require a lot of work, and it can be very challenging, but if we keep our eyes on the Lord, He’ll help us through tough times. We begin to spiral downward in our relationships when we take our focus off God. That’s when our priorities get out of whack.

Heavenly Father doesn’t stop loving us when our emotions are all over the place. He comforts and teaches us. We see this in Isaiah 43, when the Children of Israel got out of hand, and wouldn’t walk in the ways of God. They were stubborn, lost their zeal for Godliness, and treated Heavenly Father horribly. This landed them in a ton of trouble, because their priorities shifted away from God, but He did not abandon them. He told them in Isaiah 43:1(NLT), “But now, O Jacob, listen to the LORD who created you. O Israel, the one who formed you says, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.”” God continued His love and care for Israel. Romans 5:20(NLT) says, “God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.”

God looks at our hearts, and they must be anchored in Him. We really have to be careful in our relationships with men, that we recognize they can’t give us the kind of unconditional love that fills the emptiness in our souls. Only God can do this. God loves us all unconditionally, and when our focus is on learning to love as He loves, our relationships with others will blossom, because they will be centered on Christ and not on ourselves.

Lonely Christian Woman.Com

Month: June 2020

The Constant Fight

Dust It off and Keep It Moving

Centered on Christ

Making loneliness a thing of the past