Do you think you are called to be married someday?
Notice I didn’t ask, “Do you think you want to be married someday?”
I asked if you thought you were called.
If you just want to be married, you might spend a bunch of time writing out checklists for all the things your future spouse will need to be and do to make you happy. You’ll also spend countless hours daydreaming about how glorious your future married life will surely one day be.
And you’ll also live with a underlying anxiety you can’t quite put into words. It may not always be felt, but it will always be present. And when your relationship life zigs when you thought it was going to zag you’ll freak out or blow up.
This is another reason why you want to consider living for God’s call on your life instead of for your dreams.
Even your dreams for dating and marriage.
Especially your dreams for dating and marriage!
Power or Peace: Pick One
Do you want to live a life of high stress, frustration and disappointment? Then just live for your dreams. Because, let’s face it, despite what Walt Disney says, you and I both know we have no idea whether our collective dreams will come true. Or if any of them will. Because we simply don’t have the power to make them come true.
God’s call, however, will happen.
For certain.
Despite the obstacles.
So you can choose to keep trying your darndest to realize your dreams, or you can receive the peace that comes from walking in God’s calling.
Even in your relationship life.
Especially in your relationship life!
God is For You
Remember Joseph, son of Jacob?
Remember how he ended up running things in Egypt?
One crucial piece in that process was when his beloved brothers sold him into slavery. Now contemporary “God-just-wants-me-to-be-happy” logic would say, why would God allow such a thing?!?
But Joseph understood it as all part of God’s call, and said as much to his brothers, after they were reunited years later:
” And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.” – Exodus 45:7-8
Sometimes the wonder of a Biblical story is lost on us because we already know how the story ends. We’re so familiar with it we can’t live in the dark moments; the truly impossible situations when there is absolutely, positively NO WAY anything could turn out tolerable, much less good.
We quickly proceed from chaos to calm and say, “Gee, wasn’t that another neat story from the Bible? Now let’s get some ice cream!”
But try put yourself in the various dark moments of Joshua’s life. How could you hold onto peace in the midst of the storm?
- The day you’re sold into slavery by your own brothers.
- Your first day on the job as a slave.
- The day you’re falsely accused of sexual assault, by your boss’ wife!
- Your first day in the slammer.
- Your umpteenth day in prison after you’ve interpreted the dreams of two former inmates only to have them forget all about you.
How would you live through each of those days, if you couldn’t simply read on to the next part, and finish the whole story in one sitting?
You would be able to do it, if you believed God had a call on your life. And that, unlike your dreams. God’s call would happen.
Including in your relationship life.
Especially in your relationship life!
And might I add, even if YOU were the one making the wrong choice!
Think You’ve Already Messed it Up?
Remember Jonah? He was called by God to go preach to the wicked residents of Nineveh.
But he heard Tarshish was so much prettier that time of year. And he harbored a little racial prejudice toward the Ninevites.
No matter. One storm, one botched-execution-by-drowning, and one huge-hungry-fish-with-subsequent-indigestion later, and all of Nineveh is saved through the preaching of Jonah. And all this, despite the outright rebellion and overall bad attitude of this guy who gets his own book in the Bible for saving a bunch of people he never wanted saved.
If Jonah’s outright rebellion couldn’t thwart God’s plan for His life, what makes you think your past rebellion could mess with God’s plan for your life?
Even in your relationship life.
Especially in your relationship life!
Do You Serve the Same God as Joseph and Jonah?
We serve a God who promises to walk with us through every valley of the shadow of death we must traverse. Do you really think anything can keep God from leading you in your dating life, and eventually into marriage?
Relinquish the power you don’t have, to receive the peace you may have; the peace God wants you to have.
How?
By surrendering your dreams to God, and seeking His call on your life instead.
Even in your relationship life.
Especially in your relationship life!
Next week we’ll continue our exploration of all the fantabulous reasons for trading our dreams for God’s call.
DNA: It’s What’s For Dating
Dug this weekend’s DNA? Be a good friend and share with your friends on the social media platform of choice: Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter.
The LoveEd discipleship series, Beyond Sex & Salvation, will empower you to prepare for relational success when it counts: BEFORE you fall in love!
It’s NOT for couples, but for any wise individual who thinks they might want to get married sometime before they die. And would like to learn how to better build healthy relationships in the meantime.
Check out all three study guides in our store. You can walk through them on your own, but it’s more fun with friends (that and it kinda makes sense to grow in relational success in actual relationships with others), so consider putting together an FMU LoveEd small group study.
Even better? And ask a rock star married couple you respect to lead it!
