Silas
Beloved of All
I can hear the deep longing in your prayer, a heart genuinely seeking God’s leading and provision. That desire for a beautiful, intimate connection is something God understands, because He designed us for relationship. And He wants you to experience the most fundamental truth of all: that your primary relationship is not with any man, but with Him. Jesus taught us to pray, "Our Father," inviting us into a close, personal, loving relationship where we know Him as our Daddy. Everything else in life, every other love and plan, must flow from that center.
A danger we all face is slipping from a loving relationship with God into a kind of ritualistic one, where we bring Him our plans and ask for His stamp of approval, rather than laying ourselves completely before Him to hear what He says. You have poured out many specific hopes before Him, for a spark of romance, a visa, a future marriage, and a unified family. Those are powerful desires. But the crucial question is not only what we desire, but where those desires come from. The Scripture gives us a sobering picture in Peter, who one moment spoke by divine revelation and the very next moment voiced a philosophy of self-preservation that came from a darker source. The wisdom of hell says, "Spare yourself. Take the easy, smooth path." The wisdom of God often leads us deeper into surrender. We must learn to tell the difference between when God is speaking and when our own heart, with its passionate hopes, is speaking to us.
When your vertical relationship with God is the true axis of your life, every other horizontal relationship will find its proper balance. If that center is not right, you can spend all your energy trying to fix a dozen other relationships, and they will keep falling out of balance. Working on your relationship with the Lord first isn’t a side project; it is the only way for the other pieces to fall into place. His will is not just a destination He approves, but a process of shaping our character. He has given you everything you need for life and godliness through your knowledge of Him. So, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue, knowledge. This is a call to spiritual growth, to take a giant step forward in your walk with Him, not just to move toward a geographic location or a life event.
God’s divine ideal for marriage is a lifetime covenant where two become one. It is a beautiful picture, but it is also a process of completion that takes a lifetime of working out differences. The Bible also acknowledges the reality that human hearts can be hardened and unable to reach that ideal, and that failure is not an unpardonable sin. Confusion on these deep matters usually traces back to a primary relationship with God that needs attention. You cannot build a right relationship with another person until your relationship with God is correct. I encourage you to let this season be one of profound growth in your walk with Jesus. Let your relationship with Him become so deep, so intimate, and so rapture-filled that His peace, not your plans, leads you every day. When your love for Him is the first love, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, will be the natural consequence, guiding your steps and protecting your heart in ways far beyond what you can now imagine.
A danger we all face is slipping from a loving relationship with God into a kind of ritualistic one, where we bring Him our plans and ask for His stamp of approval, rather than laying ourselves completely before Him to hear what He says. You have poured out many specific hopes before Him, for a spark of romance, a visa, a future marriage, and a unified family. Those are powerful desires. But the crucial question is not only what we desire, but where those desires come from. The Scripture gives us a sobering picture in Peter, who one moment spoke by divine revelation and the very next moment voiced a philosophy of self-preservation that came from a darker source. The wisdom of hell says, "Spare yourself. Take the easy, smooth path." The wisdom of God often leads us deeper into surrender. We must learn to tell the difference between when God is speaking and when our own heart, with its passionate hopes, is speaking to us.
When your vertical relationship with God is the true axis of your life, every other horizontal relationship will find its proper balance. If that center is not right, you can spend all your energy trying to fix a dozen other relationships, and they will keep falling out of balance. Working on your relationship with the Lord first isn’t a side project; it is the only way for the other pieces to fall into place. His will is not just a destination He approves, but a process of shaping our character. He has given you everything you need for life and godliness through your knowledge of Him. So, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue, knowledge. This is a call to spiritual growth, to take a giant step forward in your walk with Him, not just to move toward a geographic location or a life event.
God’s divine ideal for marriage is a lifetime covenant where two become one. It is a beautiful picture, but it is also a process of completion that takes a lifetime of working out differences. The Bible also acknowledges the reality that human hearts can be hardened and unable to reach that ideal, and that failure is not an unpardonable sin. Confusion on these deep matters usually traces back to a primary relationship with God that needs attention. You cannot build a right relationship with another person until your relationship with God is correct. I encourage you to let this season be one of profound growth in your walk with Jesus. Let your relationship with Him become so deep, so intimate, and so rapture-filled that His peace, not your plans, leads you every day. When your love for Him is the first love, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, will be the natural consequence, guiding your steps and protecting your heart in ways far beyond what you can now imagine.
