Murph Is Thinking

The second chapter is about one’s conversion to being a Christian. Piper says that “no one is a Christian who does not embrace Jesus gladly as his most valued treasure, and then pursue the fullness of that joy in Christ that honors Him.” This seems kind of harsh but at the same time what can you expect. There are a lot of people that call themselves Christians, but what is the point if Christ isn’t the center of your life? Christian means follower of Christ, if you don’t follow Christ then you aren’t a Christian. You follow Christ because you value and honor him. If you honor or value something more you will follow that.

Why not just say believe? Why say conversion? The word believe has lost its meaning. So many people “believe” but don’t live like it. Conversion means that you believe and that you follow. 

Piper says:

So I use different words to unpack what believe means. In recent years I have asked, “Do you receive Jesus as your Treasure?” Not just Savior (everybody wants out of hell, but not to be with Jesus). Not just Lord (they might submit begrudgingly). The key is: Do you treasure Him more than everything? Converts to Christian Hedonism say with Paul, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

Six Crucial Truths to Summarize Our Need And God’s Provision

1. God created us for His glory.

“Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of theearth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory.” (Isaiah 43:6–7)

We were created in the image of God to show the glory of God.

2. Therefore, the duty of every person is to live for the glory of God.

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)

If we were created for his glory then our purpose is to live for his glory. What does that mean? We glorify God by thanking Him for all we have, trusting Him for all we need, and obeying all His revealed will.

3. Yet all of us have failed to glorify God as we ought.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

What does it mean to fall short of the glory of God? God is God so obviously we cannot be as glorious as He is. 

This is the way we “fall short” of the glory of God: We exchange it for something of lesser value. All sin comes from not putting supreme value on the glory of God—this is the very essence of sin.

I think the problem is that we so often look at sin and its immediate consequences. Sin hurts the person who commits it and it should be avoided, but if that is the only reason not to sin then doesn’t have much weight. Sin is ultimately wrong because we have not chosen what is most valuable, the glory of God. Instead we have chosen what we thought was best. As long as you are not choosing God you are settling for something far less valuable.

4. Therefore, all of us are subject to eternal condemnation by God.

The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23)

They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. (2 Thessalonians 1:9)

5. Nervertheless, in His great mercy, God sent forth His Son, Jesus Christ, to save sinners by dying in their place on the cross and rising bodily from the dead.

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. (1 Timothy 1:15)

[Jesus] was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Romans 4:25)

6. The benefits purchased by the death of Christ belong to those who repent and trust in Him.

“Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out.” (Acts 3:19)

Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31)

What is Conversion?

Acts shows that conversion involves repentance and faith. It involves turning from sin and unbelief and trusting in Christ alone for salvation. It isn’t enough just to believe, even Satan believes. Conversion is a gift from God, because without His work it wouldn’t be possible. If God doesn’t reach out to us we cannot take His hand.

Even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.… By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:5, 8)

We must believe in Jesus and receive Him and turn from our sin and obey Him and humble ourselves like little children and love Him more than we love our family, our possessions,or our own life. This is what it means to be converted to Christ. This alone is the way of life everlasting. (Acts 16:31, John 1:12, Acts 3:19, Hebrews 5:9, John 3:36, Matthew 18:3, Mark 8:34-35, Matthew 10:37, 1 Corinthians 16:22, Luke 14:33)

John 3:18–20 says:

“Whoever believes in [the Son of God] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”

We do not come into the light because the light gives us love but because we love the light. How can one honor the light if one does not love it? What would it mean if one came into the light but did not love it? Is it even possible? 

God loves it when people leave the darkness and enter the light. People enter the light because they love it. Therefore, God loves it when people enter the light because they love it. There is nothing wrong with finding pleasure in God, in fact God loves it when we do. God wants us to make Him our treasure.

The true sign of conversion is when God himself, not his gifts, becomes our treasure.

So 2010 is coming to an end soon. I decided that I’m going to post 2010 things I am thankful for. I’m kind of curious to see if I can come up with that many and also just want to reflect on this awesome year.

Stay tuned…I’ll post it when it is done. Or if I can’t come up with that many I’ll post as many as I could think of before the 1st.

The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy Himself forever.

God is absolutely sovereign. “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3). Therefore He is not frustrated. He rejoices in all His works when He contemplates them as colors of the magnificent mosaic of redemptive history. He is an unshakably happy God.

Sure there is plenty of evil in the world and God abhors evil. However, ultimately his purpose remains and his plans never fail. So even though there is evil, in the long run it is overshadowed by good. Think of it this way: God is outside of time so what he sees is what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen. So while He can focus on singular evil things overall He sees how they fit into the completion of His good works. Everything He desires happens and because of that everything He desires makes Him happy.

His happiness is the delight He has in Himself. Before creation, He rejoiced in the image of His glory in the person of His Son. Then the joy of God “went public” in the works of creation and redemption. These works delight the heart of God because they reflect His glory. He does everything He does to preserve and display that glory, for in this His soul rejoices.

God does everything for his own glory. At first this almost seems wrong because it is self centered. Think about it though… God’s glory is of ultimate value. If God did not do what was of ultimate value then He would not be righteous. It is a little different for us because our glory is not of ultimate value. If we live for our own glory we are not righteous. Living for God’s glory even when God does it is the only righteous choice. When God or anyone does what is right their soul rejoices.

All the works of God culminate in the praises of His redeemed people. The climax of His happiness is the delight He takes in the echoes of His excellence in the praises of the saints. This praise is the consummation of our own joy in God. Therefore, God’s pursuit of praise from us and our pursuit of pleasure in Him are the same pursuit. This is the great gospel! This is the foundation of Christian Hedonism.

We praise what we value, what we enjoy. If I really like a book I will tell people about it. If I really like what someone does I will say how awesome they are. If I like playing a game I will tell people how much fun it is. We find pleasure in what we value most and what we value most we praise. God is of the highest possible value, therefore He is worthy to be praised. 

7  A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink.8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)9 The Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)10 Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.11 The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.13 Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.15 The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.

16  Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband, and come here.17 The woman answered him, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You are right in saying, I have no husband;18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.

I think I have been reading this wrong. Just like the woman I have been saying, ok sweet Jesus, give me some of that water so I don’t have to drink again. I think that is the wrong way of looking at it. If we just want to be quench our “thirst” then we will drink from either source because theres always a choice. However, if we want to be truly satisfied then we will drink from Jesus’ water. 

I think the difference is that Jesus isn’t talking about quenching our physical desires but rather he is talking about satisfying the longings of our soul. There are plenty of things we can do in the moment that will make us feel good in the moment. Jesus isn’t offering just that, He is offering something that will satisfy forever, not just something that will satisfy our cravings. When we are content with just satisfying the short term cravings of our bodies we will never be satisfied with the long term satisfaction of our souls.

One more thing, notice that he says the living water is like a spring of life and if you drink it you will never be thirsty again. I don’t think this means that you will never drink again. Obviously you can’t have a relationship with God unless you drink (read your Bible, pray, etc) again. The difference is not that you won’t drink again but rather you won’t be thirsty again. If you go to the “well” looking to be satisfied you may be, for a little while, but shortly after you’ll be thirsty again. The well never satisfies because as soon as you’re done “drinking” you “need” to go back again because you are thirsty. The spring of life is available always. When you drink from it you find satisfaction, you drink from it again not because the last drink left you thirsty but because the last drink was so satisfying.  

Without You I would fade away. Even on my worst days I know that You are with me. I used to feel hopeless… But now even my bad days are filled with hope. I don’t know how I ever got by without You. Nothing can take away the joy that is found in You. Things that used to bring me down have no power. You take away the fear, the bitterness, the sadness. Joy flows from You always.

John Piper’s book is about his “philosophy” Christian Hedonism. It’s more than just a philosophy though as he believes it comes from scripture.

He defines Christian Hedonism as:

1. The longing to be happy is a universal human experience, and it is good, not sinful.

2. We should never try to deny or resist our longing to be happy, as though it were a bad impulse. Instead, we should seek to intensify this longing and nourish it with whatever will provide the deepest and most enduring satisfaction.

3. The deepest and most enduring happiness is found only in God. Not from God, in God.

4. The happiness we find in God teaches its consummation when it is shared with others in the manifold ways of love.

5. To the extent that we try to abandon the pursuit of our own pleasure, we fail to honor God and love people. Or, to put it positively: The pursuit of pleasure is a necessary part of all worship and virtue. That is:

The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. 

This is what he will try to explain and support throughout the book.

I think the point Lewis tries to make in this chapter is that while Nature is what we see there is more too it than that. He uses the analaogy of a pond and that while all you see is water at the bottom there is mud among other things. Basically what he is saying is that while we may have a physical nature our mind, while seen in our brain, may be more than just natural.

We have minds thats can reason and Lewis believes that reason can only come from reason. He believes, I think, that our reasoning abilities cannot come from nature because nature cannot produce reason. 

I’m not sure if I agree, but I can’t really think of any example of reason, or rationality, coming from non-reason, or irrationality.

All possible knowledge depends on the validity of reasoning. If the feeling of certainty which we express by words like must be and therefore and since is a real perception of how things outside our own minds really ‘must’ be, well and good. But if this certainty is merely a feeling in our own minds and not a genuine insight into realities beyond them - if it merely represents the way our minds happen to work - then we can have no knowledge. Unless human reasoning is valid no science can be true.

It follows that no account of the universe can be true unless that account leaves it possible for our thinking to be real insight. A theory which explained everything else in the whole universe but which made it impossible to believe that our thinking was valid, would be utterly out of court. For that theory would itself have been reached by thinking, and if thinking is not valid that theory would, of course, be itself demolished. It would have destroyed its own credentials. It would be an argument which proved that no argument was sound - a proof that there are no such things as proofs - which is nonsense.

Thus a strict materialism refutes itself for the reason given long ago by Professor Haldane: ‘If my mental processes are determined wholly by the motions of atoms in my brain, I have no reason to suppose my beliefs are true … and hence I have no reason for supposing my brain to be composed of atoms.’ 

If all my thoughts are just chemical reactions and electrical impulses in my brain what reason should I have to believe that I can know or perceive anything. The idea that I can know something would have to assume that I can actually know something. How can I know that I know something if I can’t know anything at all? I couldn’t know that I didn’t know because I wouldn’t be able to know anything.

Maybe they are just chemical reactions and electrical impulses…How would I know that they provide me with reliable knowledge? It is impossible, because knowing that they provided me with reliable knowledge already assumes that I have the ability to know.

An act of knowing must be determined, in a sense, solely by what is known; we must know it to be thus solely because it is thus.

Any thing which professes to explain our reasoning without introducing an act of knowing, thus solely determined by what is known, is really a theory that there is no reasoning.

But this, as it seems to me, is what Naturalism is bound to do. It offers what professes to be a full account of our mental behavior; but this account, on inspection leaves no room for the acts of knowing or insight of which the whole value of our thinking, as a means to truth, depends.

If what we ‘know’ is purely the results of natural selection then what we ‘know’ isn’t necessarily true as it is useful. If what we ‘know’ is based only on experience, how can we expect that it is true, because we may ‘know’ that all swans are white from experience, that is until we experience a black swan. Of course we all use inference to ‘know’ certain things. There is is a difference between the Naturalist and the Supernaturalist though.

The Naturalist may say, ‘Well, perhaps we cannot exactly see - not yet - how natural selection would turn sub-rational mental behavior into inferences that reach truth. But we are certain that this in fact has happened. For natural selection is bound to preserve and increase useful behavior. And we also find that our habits of inference are in fact useful. And if they are useful they must reach truth.’ But notice what we are doing. Inference itself is on trial: that is, the Naturalist has given an account of what we thought to be our inferences which suggests that they are not insights at all. We, and he, want to be reassured. And the reassurance turns out to be one more inference (if useful, then true) - as if this inference were not, once we accept his evolutionary picture, under the same suspicion as all the rest. If the value of our reasoning is in doubt, you cannot try to establish it by reasoning. If, as I said above, a proof that there are no proofs is nonsensical, so is a proof that there are proofs. There can be no question either of attacking or defending it. If by treating it as a mere phenomenon you put yourself outside it, there is then no way, except by begging the question, of getting inside again.

Thus natural selection alone cannot lead us to true knowledge.

You may, if you like, give up all claim to truth. You may say simply ‘Our way of thinking is useful’ - without adding, even under your breath, ‘and therefore true.’ 

However, using this line of reasoning Naturalism is only useful and not necessarily true.

The Theist need not, and does not, grant these terms. He is not committed to the view that reason is a comparatively recent development molded by a process of selection which can only select the biologically useful. For him, reason - the reason of God - is older than Nature, and from it the orderliness of Nature, which alone enables us to know her, is derived. For him, the human mind in the act of knowing is illuminated by the Divine reason. It is set free, in the measure required, from the huge nexus of non-rational causation; free from this to be determined by the truth known. And the preliminary processes within Nature which led up to this liberation, if there were any, were designed to do so.

Lewis defines a miracle as “an interference with nature by supernatural power. Naturalists don’t believe in miracles because they don’t believe there is anything else besides nature. Supernaturalists do believe in miracles because they believe there is something beyond nature. Who is right though?

The Naturalist believes that the ultimate Fact, the thing you can’t go behind, is a vast process in space and time which is going on of its own accord. Inside that total system every particular event happens because some other event has happened; in the long run, because the Total Event is happening. Each particular thing is what it is because other things are what they are; and so, eventually, because the whole system is what it is. All the things and events are so completely interlocked that no one of them can claim the slightest independence from ‘the whole show’. None of them exists ‘on its own’ or ‘goes on of its own accord’ except in the sense that it exhibits, at some particular place and time, that general ‘existence on its own’ or ‘behavior of its own accord’ which belongs to ‘Nature’ as a whole. Thus no thoroughgoing Naturalist believes in free will: for free will would mean that human beings have the power of independent action, the power of doing something more or other than what was involved by the total series of events. And any such separate power of originating events is what the Naturalist denies. Spontaneity, originality, action ‘on its own’ is a privilege reserved for ‘the whole show’, which he calls Nature.

The Supernaturalist agrees with the Naturalist that there must be something which exists in its own right; some basic Fact whose existence it would be nonsensical to try to explain because this Fact is itself the ground or starting point of all explanations. But he does not identify this Fact with ‘the whole show’. He thinks that things fall into two classes. In the first class we find either things or One Thing which is basic and original, which exists on its own. In the second we find things which are merely derivative from that One Thing. The one basic Thing has caused all the other things to be. It exists on its own; they exist because it exists. They will cease to exist if it ever ceases to maintain them in existence, they will be altered if it ever alters them.

Naturalists and Supernaturalists both use the term “Nature” however they do not mean the same thing. Naturalists see Nature as everything that exists, Supernaturalists see Nature as that which is created by God and is possibly one of many “realities”. These alternate realities would normally have no relation to one another other than the fact they were created by God. However, even if the supernatural does occur this does not mean that miracles must necessarily occur. God may not interfere with what he has created. At the same if the supernatural does exist then miracles are possible should God chose to allow them.

So the question at this point is Naturalism or Supernaturalism?

Do miracles happen? Have you ever experienced a miracle? How would you know if you did? Can historical evidence prove to you that a miracle really happened? 

If you believe in miracles then historical evidence will probably persuade you. However, if you do not believe in miracles then no amount of evidence will be able to convince you. Even if you experience a real miracle, if there is such a thing, you probably wouldn’t believe it and try to explain it somehow.

“Do miracles happen?” is more of a philosophical question than anything else. C.S. Lewis’ book aims to take a look at the philosophy behind the two different beliefs.

There is a kind of an anti-intellectualism among many Christians: spirituality is falsely pitted against intellectual comprehension as though they stood in a dichotomy. Such anti-intellectualism cuts away at the very heart of the Christian message. Of course, there is a false intellectualism which does destroy the work of the Holy Spirit. But it does not arise when men wrestle honestly with honest questions and then see that the Bible has the answers. This does not oppose true spirituality. 

Francis Schaeffer

I really don’t get it. What is wrong with using our minds? Why do Christians look down on it? I find that reasoning brings me closer to God, not away from God. It inspires awe for God not the opposite.

Jesus said “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind”

If we love God with all our mind it will bring us closer to God, not push us away. How can you love God with all your mind if you don’t use it and develop it?

Many have use their minds and have been inspired by God:

“When I reflect on so many profoundly marvelous things that persons have grasped, sought, and done I recognize even more clearly that human intelligence is a work of God, and one of the most excellent.”

- Galileo

“I had the intention of becoming a theologian…but now I see how God is, by my endeavors, also glorified in astronomy, for ‘the heavens declare the glory of God.’

- Kepler

“The examination of the bodies of animals has always been my delight, and I have thought that we might thence not only obtain an insight into the lighter mysteries of nature, but there perceive a kind of image or reflection of the omnipotent Creator Himself.”

- William Harvey

“It is the perfection of God’s works that they are all done with the greatest simplicity. He is the God of order and not of confusion. And therefore as they would understand the frame of the world must endeavor to reduce their knowledge to all possible simplicity, so must it be in seeking to understand these visions.”

- Isaac Newton

 “The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator.”

- Louis Pasteur

“Men became scientific because they expected law in nature and they expected law in nature because they believed in a lawgiver.”

- C.S. Lewis

“Because the world is God’s creation, it’s worthy of study”

- John Polkinghorne

Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed. - Proverbs 15:22

Godly “teammates” not only can provide confirmation when God is putting a relationship together, but also can advice caution when something doesn’t seem quite right. It’s like having rear view and sideview mirrors while driving; they help us see things from a broader perspective. Their wisdom, experience, and maturity give them the ability to see the things we often miss. So don’t just go the easy route when it comes to picking teammates. Be willing to submit to godly counsel from someone older, even if it seems difficult at first.

We can’t do it alone. We are often blinded by our own emotions. That is why we need to pick a team of people that can give us good advice. That could be our parents or people we are close with and know well that will give good advice. These people can help us see and understand where our relationships are headed and if it is good. If we don’t ask for their help our plans will probably fail, but if we do and we listen to it they will succeed. We may think we can do it alone, but we will be far happier that we didn’t when we realize how helpful having other perspectives can be.

This chapter was very similar to the last one. Basically the same idea, is to practice on your family. In order to learn how to love your future spouse you need to learn how to love your parents and your siblings.

If I don’t know how to treat my mom and my sister how can I know how to treat my future wife? Sure it might be “perfect” when we start out, but what happens when we settle down and really get to know each other. The real me that my mom and sister see will be the same person my wife will see. They have to be the same loving person.

Women want more than anything to be cherished (or so I’ve been told). Men more than anything want to be respected. We have to learn to respond the way that others want to be responded to, not the way we want. Once again the best “practice” is our family. If we can love them they way that they desire we will learn to be the same when new people enter our family.

One of the biggest tests of whether or not you’re ready to get married is how you get along with your family or the people closest to you. How can we expect to get along with someone we plan on being very close to if we can’t even get along with our family.

“You’re only as holy as you are at home.” I think a lot of us treat our family differently. If we are supposed to be like Christ, and have integrity, then we should love them as much as everyone else. They should get the “honor” of taking our crap because they are our family. We should treat them with the love and respect that everyone deserves. 

I know when we live close to people it is easy to get annoyed with them. But we have to learn to forgive them. Marriage isn’t any different, your spouse will annoy you and you will annoy your spouse, the only way to get through this is to learn how to forgive. What better way to “practice” than with your family. 

If you’re not able to act like Jesus now with those most close and familiar, then what makes you think that when you get married you are going to be an example of Jesus to your spouse? You are only as Christlike as you are Christlike around your family. If you start there, where it is most difficult to love, then it will be easy to display Christ everywhere else.

Its true, we have to learn how to love the people closest to us if we want to have any hope for our future marriage.

Learning to loyally stand by those who embarrass us is a character trait of Christ. Just think: where would you be with God right now if He didn’t hang around those of us who embarrass Him? Loyalty is also a necessary quality in a successful marriage relationship. When you get married you’ll understand that even your spouse has oddball characteristics.

We have to learn to cherish and laugh about the things that makes our family weird. They’re our family, we can’t get embarrassed or annoyed by dumb things because we also, like everyone, have quirks too.

Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart. - Psalm 37:4

Do we trust God with our future marriage? He is faithful, He will give us the desires of our heart. The problem is we often think we need to take control of the situation. We need to find someone otherwise it won’t happen. The problem is that when we don’t trust God we often settle for less.

God wants us to hold out for a fairy tale. It isn’t that He wants us to be unrealistic and wait for the perfect person, because they don’t exist. But He does want us to have integrity, we shouldn’t settle for fear that we won’t find someone. I think a lot of the problem these days is that some people settle, they marry someone that is less than what they were looking for, and then they end up miserable.

Your role is to not frantically search for a spouse and then ask God to bless your selfishly motivated decisions. Rather your role is to pray, to trust, to build your life around Him, to listen to His still, small voice of guidance…and let Him take care of the rest.

Are we going to be miserable if we don’t get married? If we don’t find the right person? If we answer yes to these questions maybe we are missing the point. Jesus is the right person, He is ultimately the person we are supposed to be in the closest relationship with. This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t get married, marriage is a gift from God that most people will enjoy. But if marriage is our source of happiness then we are looking in the wrong place. 

So think of it this way…if you get married, and you probably will, then that’s great. If you don’t then it’s no big deal because you have already have satisfaction in Christ.

If our hopes are being disappointed just now, it means that they are being purified. There is nothing noble the human mind has ever hoped for or dreamed that will not be fulfilled. One of the greatest strains in life is the strain of waiting for God. “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience.” Remain spiritually tenacious.

- Oswald Chambers

So I have decided that I have been looking at it the wrong way. I do long to be married but ultimately I should be focused on God and not finding “the one”…because I have already found Him.

I want to keep my integrity. I don’t want lower my standards for someone that isn’t right for me. The right girl loves God and is focused on Him. She isn’t trying to attract the attention of every guy she sees, nor is a relationship one of her main concerns. She has standards and most guys won’t live up to them. She has goals, plans, and isn’t just floating through life doing “whatever”. She spends time with God, actively seeking what He has put on her heart, and isn’t distracted by the world. She doesn’t just listen, she lives it out. She knows who she is, she doesn’t need other people to tell her who to be. She is a servant, she loves people and shows it. She knows God has a plan for her love life and she trusts Him. I don’t know much else about her but I’m sure God will show us both what to look for.

Don’t despise loneliness. Instead, allow it to chase you into the read arms of your King. If you turn to Him instead of trying to fill the void with other things, you will find that He is ready to meet your every need. You’ll also discover that He may be using loneliness to prepare and equip you to be a leader, to stand firm when everyone else’s courage is failing, and to live for the applause of your King alone.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7 that singleness is a benefit because it enables a person to focus on serving the Lord without distraction. Those who are willing to allow God to use this season of their lives for His purposes will discover an incredible truth: singleness doesn’t have to be a time of passive and futile waiting. Instead it can be an exciting adventure of actively serving in God’s kingdom, cultivating unhindered intimacy with Christ, and even practically preparing for a future marriage.

I want it all…I want it all…I want it all…and I want it now!

Queen’s Song “I Want It All” definitely describes the way our culture thinks. We don’t have any patience. We want it all and we want it right away. The problem is life isn’t easy like that, at least if you want it to turn out good. You’ve probably heard “the best things in life are worth waiting for”. Well that is true when it comes to love. It doesn’t just happen overnight and you aren’t going to find it right when you want it.

In this chapter they talk about waiting and trusting God. You aren’t going to find your future spouse right away. The next person you are attracted to probably isn’t “the one”. Romantic heroism is about being faithful to your future spouse before you even know them. It means not looking for the next relationship. It means focusing on God’s plan for you at this point in your life. It doesn’t mean you can’t be friends with the opposite sex, but it does mean that you take the time to get to know someone before you even think about dating them. Dating isn’t about trying people out to find the right one. You should already know them before you start dating. Believe it or not you can get to know people without dating them. Not rushing into a relationship is in everyone’s best interest. 

It all comes down to trusting God and making the right decisions, decisions you will be happy to share with your spouse some day.