Author: Craig

Let’s start by talking a bit about what Scripture tells us what marriage actually means.

Ephesians 5:31–33
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”  This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

God’s Word tells us first that when a man and a woman marry each other they become one flesh. The implications of this are significant. We longer live for our selves but for the other person. We walk through life with this person in humility and with a heart that puts their needs before ours, we do this mutually.

Marriage is nothing short of a profound mystery because of what it actually means. Marriage is a picture of Jesus Christ’s love for his bride…the church. This might sound a bit strange that Jesus has a bride, and it may sound even stranger to find out it’s called the church.

The church is simply the people of God, whom Jesus has died for and saved, and who have committed their lives to him. Listen to the first part of that last sentence carefully…Jesus died for the church. Now that is ultimate humility and sacrifice.

As the church, we gladly love and serve our Lord Jesus because of his willing sacrifice for us that joins us back to the Father who created us to glorify him in all that we do. So that’s the picture we have. The groom, Jesus sacrificing for his bride, the church. A beautiful picture of sacrifice and loving submission.

Ephesians 5:25–28
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

Now to your answer. How do you know who to marry? With all this background let me ask you a question. Is this man someone who will lovingly, sacrificially, humbly, walk with you for the rest of your life, putting your needs before his? Because Scripture tells us he is to love you as Jesus loves the church.

I’m not saying he has to be perfect, because that’s not possible. But when he fails, and he will, does he exhibit the humility to ask for your forgiveness and forgiveness of God? This kind of man, Susan, is a man you can love and grow old with.

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FaithQuest is a safe place for you to ask any question you have about God, Faith & Life in general.

There are two meanings of the will of God.

1) God’s will of decree, also known as his sovereign will, and
2) his will of command.

God’s sovereign will is his control over all things that come to happen in the universe. This will cannot be changed or altered. God’s will of command is what he commands us to do. This is the will of God we can disobey.

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FaithQuest is a safe place for you to ask any question you have about God, Faith & Life in general.

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 (ESV)
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you

I’d say praying is pretty important if we’re to pray all the time! Not possible you say? Well, one thing we must understand about how God communicates to us through his Word, is that he often speaks in these big bold statements that seem crazy and impossible.

But what he’s getting at when he says things like “pray without ceasing” is that if we truly love him and if Jesus is truly our Savior, then the posture of our hearts will be one of constant awareness and humility before God.

One of my favorite authors on spiritual disciplines, Don Whitney, says, “When our awareness of the greatness of God and the gospel is dim, our prayer lives will be small”. That’s it! We serve a big God. Every day we go outside and experience the vastness of the world around us whether it be the sun, moon, stars or simply the variety of people we know, that speaks to the power of God.

We read in Luke 5.16 that “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray”. If Jesus needed to pray, how much more do we need to pray. We need prayer because it conforms our hearts to God and makes us more like Jesus.

What about fasting?

Matthew 6:16–18 (ESV)
“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Notice Jesus says “when you fast” not “If you fast”. He assumes we will fast, it’s expected. Sadly fasting is one of the most neglected spiritual disciplines in Christian living. God created hunger. We must have food in order to live a long healthy life. When we feel hunger, rather than running to the refrigerator, we should think of God and how he wonderfully created us to need food.

But how often do we think of it that way? Fasting puts us in an intentional position to do without food, or if not food whatever we are fasting from, and to feel a distinct void. This void should then heighten our attention to prayer and devotion to the one who has created us. Fasting and praying are important because they connect us to the heart of God.

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FaithQuest is a safe place for you to ask any question you have about God, Faith & Life in general.

These are excellent questions that get at the very character and nature of our God.

I’ll answer your questions in order.

Does God really fulfill his promises?

Psalm 117:1–2 (ESV)
Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!

God is a promise maker and a promise keeper. You’ve identified one of the countless “attributes of God”. The study of the character and nature of God is inexhaustible; however, this one is foundational to our understanding of him. As God’s redemptive plan unfolds in Scriptures we see many promises made in the Old Testament by his spokesmen, also called prophets, that ultimately are fulfilled in the New Testament in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The first mention of a prophet is found in Genesis 20 regarding a man named Abraham who we first meet as Abram in Genesis 12 where God speaks to him:

Genesis 12:1–3 (ESV)
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Throughout the remainder of Scriptures we see the grand unfolding of the answering of this promise. We see it in the people of Israel as they grow into a nation of God’s holy, set apart people for God’s glory. Countless times God makes promises to the Israelites and, in spite of their unfaithfulness and disobedience, God continues to pursue and fulfill his promises all because of his unfailing love. Fast forward two thousand years and God continued to fulfill that promise. The Apostle Peter writes to the dispersed persecuted church, Jews and Gentile believers alike:

1 Peter 2:9–10 (ESV)
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Fast forward another two thousand years to today, and God continues to call a distinct people to Himself through the very same means, the blood of Jesus Christ, our perfect redeemer.

John 14:6–7 (ESV)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

God continues to fulfill his promises.

Why does it take God so long to fulfill his promises?

A very good question, and one that I would not presume to know the mind of God and be able to fully answer. However, let me say this. God is sovereign, infinite and is totally in control. He created time and space, but is bound by neither. We are the created who exist within those boundaries for a determined period of time. God knows what we need and what we want. I think we confuse our wants for needs, and when our wants aren’t being met we believe God is denying or delaying his promise or blessing. So if you’re in a time in life where it seems God is not fulfilling his promise “draw near to Him and he will draw near to you” (James 4.8). That is what God wants, because it’s his very nature. In fact, it’s the meaning of the name of his Son Emmanuel, God with us. Always remember God is in the waiting periods of our lives drawing us closer to himself to rely on him and him alone.

How can I have a friendly relationship with God?

By now I hope you see God loves you, Shawn. He desires to have a relationship with you through his Son Jesus Christ. The God of Scriptures is known by many names, but the one I love the most is “Father”. He desires to know you so intimately that he made a way, in spite of our sin which separates us from him, to be not only in a friendly relationship, but a loving and nurturing relationship with him. Jesus himself the son of the living God loves you, and he bore the wrath of the Father on our behalf so that you and I can live in peace with God. We find our hope, our confidence,our love and, yes, even our friendly relationship with God through Jesus Christ the Savior.

Hebrews 4:14–16
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Blessings,

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FaithQuest is a safe place for you to ask any question you have about God, Faith & Life in general.