The Peace Of God

I've been reading through Boy Meets Girl again and God has shown me some new things to work on. I've learned that I'm not trusting God with the who, how, and when in my marriage. I want God to tell me who it is, how it will happen, and when it will happen. After all, that only seems logical. I can't follow God unless He tells me who, how, and when, right? Otherwise, I might make a mistake and somehow mess it up.

But I'm making a major error when thinking like that. When I focus on the who, how, and when, then I'm eliminating any room to trust God. If I knew who I would marry, how we'd meet, and when we'd start our relationship, then I wouldn't need God! I actually blogged about this two months ago (Trust: Faith, Hope, & Love), but it's taken a whole new meaning on to me. Everything I wrote is true in Trust: Faith, Hope, & Love, but I've recently realized that there is more to it. Not only am I to trust God with His timing and His planning, but I also need to be content with being single. I need to not be anxious about marriage. I need to think of girls as sisters in Christ instead of potential wives. I must confess: I'm afraid I've made an idol out of marriage. I desire marriage too much. I'm frustrated with being single. I want to be in love. I think of girls as potential wives and not the sisters in Christ they are. Marriage is on my mind all day and I'm always wondering who, how and when. I need to change. But how?

One of my favorite verses is Philippians 4:6-7, which says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." How amazing is this! These two verses have been such a comfort to me. I don't have to be anxious or nervous about anything. I can take my requests to God through prayer and petition. And this is the best part: the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus. Wow.The peace of God. The peace of God transcends all understanding. The peace of God will guard my heart. Now we're on to something.

So it seems to me that if we choose to take our problems and desires to God, then His peace will guard my heart and protect me. And not only that, but according to these verses, it's better to have the peace of God than to have all understanding. And one glance through Proverbs tells us how important wisdom and understanding are. But apparently, it's better to have God's peace than wisdom and understanding.

And this is key if I want to change. I have adopted the prayer of David Tate, a man whose story is told in Boy Meets Girl. I cannot recall his prayer word for word, and since I just loaned my copy of Boy Meets Girl to a friend, I'll just share with you what my prayer is: Father, I don't want to be anxious about this area of my life. I need to know who, just as much as how and when. I want to be content. I want to trust you. I want Your peace, which protects my heart and my mind. Amen.

Remember that our mindset should be that everything should be done to bring glory and attention to God, not ourselves. If we live with this mindset, then we'll learn to trust God. I believe the best thing I can do for my wife right now is to live my life with the purpose of bring all the glory and attention to God. I want to die each day and life for Christ. For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Let God write your love story for you. He doesn't need any help; He's the original storyteller. All He asks is that you live your life to bring Him all the glory. Will you do that?

Satisfaction In Christ

Sex is great, or so I'm told. But the irony of sex is that it was specifically designed for marriage. If you have sex before or outside of marriage, it backfires. It becomes sin.

Drugs are similar. God deserves thanks for creating the plants that drugs come from because so much of our medication depends on them. Without drugs, diseases would be so much worse and death rates would be sky high. But if you take drugs the wrong way, it backfires. As good as a high may feel, where does it get you? Strung out on the floor and deep into sin.

Alcohol will do nothing for you except leave you puking into a toilet. And cigarettes won't help you unless you want to take fifteen years off your life. And fighting will only give you a beaten body and swollen pride. And stealing, cheating, and lying will only make you jumpy all the time and take away your peace of mind.

Nothing in this world brings true satisfaction. There are things that can be good, such as video games, friends, cool cars, winning the championship game, possessing a large paycheck, etc. But these things are so not worth living for. The only true thing in life worth living for is Jesus Christ. Only He brings true satisfaction. You've probably heard it said that Jesus wants to be the #1 priority in your life. He doesn't want to be #1. He wants to be your life. He wants to your your all, your everything, your Lord and Savior.

Christ came to give life. He didn't come to make it make our lives boring and miserable by keeping us from doing the "fun" stuff. He came to show us a better way to live. The things of this world are not of God. So don't live for things that are of the world, because 1 John 2 says, "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."

Don't live for desires that pass away, that bring death, that separate us from God. Don't live for the things of this world, because everything here will eventually be destroyed. Live for God. Live for love. Life for life.