I Am Living Proof

God speaks to us:

Jeremiah 16:1-2 (NKJV) The word of the Lord also came to me, saying, “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.”

I am of the belief that being married is not a result of a series of random events. Everything that happens happens for a reason.

I am knee deep into the Book of Jeremiah and this verse jumped out at me (as well as chapters 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 21, 22, etc.). This got me to thinking:

If we are obedient to God, call on His name, are utter dependent on Him and abide by His will and not our own, then if He needed you not to marry, He would have said so directly.

If we listen to God when we want to, lean on Him only when times are tough, try to live this life by our own strength and just do things when we want to, then life is going to be a series of random events that might include getting married.

I get this strange feeling that because we Christians lift and exalt the idea of marriage (some as a backlash to the easy going nature of the world when it comes to marriage and divorce) to such a level that once we get into marriage and that was a covenant with God then our lives will be blessed.

In other words, are we putting marriage and the idea of being married before our God? Are we making it our idol?

Writer Ashley Weis said it best in a recent article:

I want to be enough. I want my husband to love me, to notice me and only me. I want to be the most beautiful, astounding, heart-throbbing woman in the world to him. I want to be enough!

When thoughts like those enter my soul I step back and realize that every one of them begins with “I.” None has to do with God.

My idealistic view of marriage was selfish. I wanted my husband to validate my beauty as a woman. I wanted to feel loved and enough. I made his struggle with sexual sin about me. How could I ever support him if I kept making this about me?

Being married doesn’t automatically make it the will of God. The entire life lesson about abide and submitting to the will of God that is learned is that it is not about me but it is all about Him. It is not mine but Thine will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

When God started quickly answering my prayer requests not too long ago, it broked and humble me again. I soon realized that I was afraid to go to God with the big and scary questions not because I couldn’t ask God but rather I was scared to get the answer I wasn’t looking for.

In this last week, I took it all to God: the big and the scary questions. Whatever I came up with, He answered them one right after the other. God kept confirming what I was doing over and over again. “Search My heart. Love others as I love you. That girl you keep asking about? Continue to honour and lift her up. Keep serving your ex-wife. Keep showing others My heart.”

Strangely enough, none of the answers were “Wait”.

For the last year, I was all set out to wait two, three, five years or the rest of my life to let God complete His work within me. But all of a sudden, God kept encouraging, edifying and strengthening me and keeps blessing me with His knowledge, wisdom and endurance over and over again. I keep getting pushed into ministry opportunites over and over again. (The salvation of one 6 year old girl weighs heavily on my heart.) Holy Spirit keeps telling me to talk to this person and that person. I keep engaging and uplifting others.

Yet, I never grow weary or tired of it. Yet I want to do more.

Again, the journey is incredible. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.