Intro: Revelations of His Love

Sometimes I wonder if God is single, and then I realized that it was not the most efficacious route to understanding my singleness, let alone a reverent one, but I like to be honest with you all, my mind is constantly reeling. I ask myself a lot of questions in search of understanding why God created both male and female. Furthermore, to put this fleeting thought to sleep about Gods relationship status, I concluded on Facebook it would probably read something along the lines of “It’s Complicated”. Yet, in an effort to reframe the question it made me realize something rather revelatory, while in Genesis we learn that God said it was not good for man to be alone so he created woman, we later find in 1 Corinthians that God reminds us that a married person may divide too much attention away from Him; which is also not a good thing. The revelation came as I was grappling between these very different messages. God is not overly concerned with our marital status, rather He consistently points us back to unity with Him by fulfilling the law through one word, love. Marriage is a gift and can be one way in which we fulfill this law. We have the ability to marry if we need to in order to stay out of sins way or because we find someone who enriches our journey, but the truth is marriage does not define our walk, its purpose is to enhance and personifies how Jesus loves his bride, the church. How great we dare to love others is the true mark of our Christian faith. Marriage is a milestone not the end all be all of life. When we put it above God we place ourselves outside of Christ and in turn gravely do a disservice to loving God, ourselves, and our spouse. I believe this is what brings some of the deepest pain to our significant others. When another person becomes our source to fill voids and become the bearers of unobtainable expectation this strains the relationship. We see the revelation of the power of love interwoven throughout the entire bible, and it is our job to share Christs love regardless of whether we are single or not. In Galatians 5:14 it says, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” It is the golden rule, the point of our walk with Christ.

If you went through life and you accomplished very little in man’s eyes, yet loved as Jesus loved your successes will be accounted for in heaven, in fact without it we know scripture states that without love at the foundation of our thoughts and actions everything we do is null and void. Furthermore, knowing that Christ is love, I regularly contemplate how one can have a loving relationship with themself and with others in a world that is not walking in hunger and thirst to know Him. Jesus has taught me so much about both the joys and responsibilities of sacrificial love that I could not fathom what type of person I would be in relationship without His guidance. To extrapolate on the topic of love and its many facets could truly take my entire lifetime. It is with a hunger and passion I want to explore, express, and unveil all of its mysterious and glorious life giving dimensions with those who join me on this journey. Since there is so much to talk about in the world of love and we cannot seem to get enough of how relational God is let us take this week to look at the top ways we can steward the gift of singleness and how these help prepare us for our spouses. We will start with the first way tomorrow.

~ Kathryn