Day 113

DELIGHT IN MY DAY

Today’s Text: If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. (Isaiah 58:13,14)

Today’s Thoughts: God doesn’t want us to trample on His Sabbath. He wants us to spend it with Him. He gave it to us as a rest-day to spend in worship to Him and to take a pause from our own busy and pretty selfish lives. He gave us a whole seven days in each week. He only asks us to give one of those back to Him. And yet we must keep Him by our side every single day. We have six days to sort out our busy lives, and then one whole day to rest and recharge for the next week. God has a special blessing for those who come to spend a day with Him. He wants each of us to take the time to build a close and personal relationship with Him. God has promised a reward for those who obey His command to keep His Sabbath, and what God has promised stands forever. He gave us the Sabbath as a benefit to us; He wants us to delight in spending that day with Him. I invite you to try it. Delight in God’s Sabbath day.

Today’s Testimony: Out of all ten Commandments, I think the fourth one is the one we most often push aside. Most people don’t set aside a full 24 hours for the Lord. They don’t feel the need to, and don’t believe we have to. So today I’d like us to talk a bit more about keeping the Sabbath holy.
When we discussed the fourth commandment we shared what we should and shouldn’t do on this day, so we won’t go into that again. Firstly, let us talk about which day is the Sabbath. There are so many theories going around that many just don’t know anymore. I would say look at the calendar to see which is the seventh day of the week, but calendars are changing these days so even they confuse us. And yet even then, some say, “How can we be sure that the calendar hasn’t changed over years?” “How do we know that what we may view as the seventh day of the week is the same seventh day that Jesus blessed at Creation and kept while He was here?” That is an extremely valid question. I want to spend one full day with the Lord every week, and I want it to be the only day that God blessed – I hope you do too. So for me, amongst all the other evidences I have, this stands as the most persuasive that Saturday truly is the seventh day of the week – the Sabbath blessed and set apart as holy since Creation…. Ever heard of animals that keep Sabbath? I’ve heard of a donkey that wouldn’t budge because those intended to use it to work wanted to keep the Sabbath. They couldn’t work without the donkey, so they were let off from their work. I’ve heard other similar stories too. Now we could say, “Well, in those situations God could have been honouring the convictions of His people who were living up to what they believed.” Fair enough. But what about the bees in Brazil? They live far away from civilisation. Their bee-keepers live in small huts while the bees live in tree stumps as they always have. Bees are known to work hard, and these bees do, but only for six days of the week. On Saturday, the seventh-day Sabbath, these bees remain in their hives. They don’t go to collect nectar, and they don’t do anything in their hives either – they rest. Who told them to rest on Saturday? Could it be that God wants to tell us something through these bees? If God’s “sinless” creation (by the way – these bees don’t sting, just for interest sake) keep Saturday as God’s Sabbath day, I choose to do the same.
Why most people go to church on Sunday instead of Saturday is something we’re not going to deal with now. My Bible doesn’t say anything about God’s holy Sabbath changing from the seventh day to the first day of the week and I believe that seeing this day is so important to Him He would have mentioned any change at least once. If you were Satan wouldn’t you want to turn the world away from worshipping on the only day that God blessed and from keeping that day holy as God commanded? Could it be that that was and is Satan’s goal? Just some food for thought. Like I said, we’re not going to dig into that now.
Now we need to discuss the time for Sabbath-keeping. According to Leviticus 23:32, the Sabbath should be celebrated from evening until evening. When God made the sun and the moon He set the sun to rule the day and the moon to rule the night. At the end of each day of the Creation story we read that “the evening and the morning” were whichever day. To put it simply – we now function with the day being from midnight till midnight, but God set the day to be from evening (the moons time), till evening (the moons time). This means that a Biblical day lasts from sunset to sunset. The Sabbath therefore is from sunset on what we call Friday until sunset on what we call Saturday.
The Sabbath was given to us as a rest-day in commemoration of Creation. It is a day to remember our Creator. I have a twin sister. That means that I don’t get my own birthday – I have to share. When I was young I asked my mom if I could celebrate my birthday a few days later because I wanted to have my own day to feel special. I was very disappointed when she told me that wasn’t possible. Fact is – we can’t change the day we were born. The Sabbath is planet Earth’s birthday. I plan to worship my Creator on that day and spend it with Him. I hope you do too.

Today’s Task: I’m going to be keeping the Sabbath this week. Will you join me? Please do. God wants to spend this special day with you. Please don’t disappoint Him. There is a special blessing for all those who delight in this day. I invite you to keep this Sabbath and all those to come. Delight in spending the Sabbath with the Lord and you will be blessed.

Today’s Thanks: Lord I thank You that You have given us a day to rest and recharge. Help us to take advantage of this blessing. I thank You that You, the Creator, want to spend time with us, the creation. Lord You want a close and personal relationship with each and every one of us. You have even set aside one whole day to build that relationship and I praise You for that. I thank You that You love Your creation so much. Lord help us to love You with all our hearts and to do whatever You ask. I praise You for the Sabbath. Amen.

Day 112

LOVE IS THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW

Today’s Text: Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. (Romans 13:10)

Today’s Thoughts: If we love others we will not do them any harm. Therefore, if we love God and others we will not break the Ten Commandments. God wants us to love Him and our fellow man. Everyone wants to be loved. No one wants to be mistreated. God wants what’s best for all of us. This is why He wants us to love.

Today’s Testimony: Have you ever heard people say that we don’t have to keep the Ten Commandments anymore because God gave us a new commandment to love? Today I’m going to share the texts that the Lord gave me to explain this theory.
First of all let’s share the text from which some get this false idea, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34). Now this new commandment for one only speaks about loving others. Do you believe that it is essential for us to love God too? If your answer was yes, we’ve already hit a problem with the “new commandment” theory. In the very next chapter of the Bible Christ says these words, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). This means that even if we are only required to love, in loving God we will keep His Commandments.
When we started this series I mentioned that the Commandments can be divided into love for God and love for our fellow man. You may go and look at the Ten Commandments again to double check (Exodus 20:1-17). Here are the texts that bring us to this conclusion: “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Mat 22:36-40). So this means that the Commandments can be summed up in “love”. Read Romans 13:8-10, “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” There is no clearer text to explain the simple truth that the new commandment to love was just a more simple way of stating the ten. Think about it… even if Christ did mean that we only have to love now, by default we would have to keep all ten Commandments. We cannot kill and yet claim to love. We cannot dishonour others and yet claim to love. We cannot spend as little time as possible with the Lord and claim to love Him.
But beyond the fact of “love” being a more simple way to state the Ten Commandments, look at it this way. When Christ came the people were “keeping” the Ten Commandments, but most of them were doing it because they had to keep them and thus were doing so with long faces. Think about it this way – you are so angry with someone that you feel you could kill, but you refrain because the Commandment says you mustn’t kill. Yet you still harbour that anger in your heart. For one, that’s why Christ told them that if they “hate” they are breaking that Commandment anyway (Matthew 5:21, 22). But I believe the reason Christ gave us the “new commandment” wasn’t because He was changing anything. We had missed the point – we were “keeping” the Commandments but with hate in our hearts. Christ intended to open our eyes. If we truly focus on loving God and others we will naturally want to keep all ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were never nailed to the cross, nor were they replaced. We had just fallen asleep and needed to be reminded of the reason that God gave the Ten Commandments in the first place. He wants His people to be happy. The Commandments were given for our benefit and the new commandment was given as a reminder. Let’s remember these Commandments given in love.

Today’s Task: Love God and love your fellow man. I invite you to make the commitment to keep all ten Commandments. God gave them for our benefit. Taste the joy of living the life God intended for us to live.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I praise You that You gave us the Ten Commandments. I praise You that You reminded us that we cannot truly keep Your Commandments if we are doing so with hate. Lord please help us to love You more and to love others more too. Please help us to keep Your Commandments. You gave them for our benefit and we want the blessings that come from keeping them. I thank You that You love us so much. Amen.

Day 111

MY COMMANDMENTS STAND FOREVER

Today’s Text: Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:17-19)

Today’s Thoughts: God never intended for us to throw away His commandments. He gave them so we could keep them, and continue keeping them. After all – we learnt over the last few days that He gave them for our benefit. Why would He want to take them away?! And more than that – why on earth would we want to stop keeping them if they benefit us?! There is a curse for those who neglect God’s commandments of love, and there is a blessing for those who obey them. The Ten Commandments stand forever. They were written in stone with the finger of God. Let us keep them forever.

Today’s Testimony: Have you ever heard someone say that the Commandments were nailed to the cross? Do you have any idea where they get this idea from? This assumption is taken from a verse in the Bible itself, but it is interpreted out of context. Now I don’t know what you believe about whether or not we should still keep the Ten Commandments, but I’d like to share some Scripture texts with you. If you disagree at all you can either e-mail me or go directly to God Himself seeing I will be sharing purely Scripture. Please read the passages mentioned if you have any problems and also read their surrounding verses to obtain a better idea of what God is saying in these passages.
The text that gives many the idea that the Commandments were nailed to the cross is found in Colossians 2:14, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.” Well let’s start by noting that this text does not say Law or Commandments, it says “handwriting of ordinances”, and yet people still assume this text refers to the Ten Commandments. Secondly I’d like to bring to your attention that whatever was nailed to the cross was “against” us, but we’ve just had a look at the benefits in keeping the Ten Commandments. According to this text, something was definitely nailed to the cross, but was it the Commandments?
Did you know that the children of Israel were given other laws besides the Ten Commandments? Our next text is Ephesians 2:15, “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances….” Ok, so this text refers to the nailing as abolishing, but it speaks about the law of commandments contained in ordinances. So, could it be that these laws were what was nailed to the cross? What laws are these then? Let’s take a look at Hebrews 9:10, “Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.” Here we find that these things were “imposed” on God’s people “until” the time of reformation. These were the sacrificial and ceremonial laws – the ones about washing and offerings etcetera. The sacrificing of lambs for one was no longer necessary because the Lamb that it pointed to had died as our true sacrifice.
If you’re still not convinced then you better keep reading and follow carefully. “Sin is the transgression of the law” (1John 3:4). Therefore it follows that “where no law is, there is no transgression” (Romans 4:15). In other words – if sin is the breaking of the law, and there is no law, we cannot sin. Then take a look at Galatians 3:19, “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made….” Once again this is referring to the law that was nailed to the cross. This law was “added because of transgressions”. That means that another law must have been broken first right? Think about it… God’s Commandments of love were broken and He therefore had to put in place the sacrificial laws to point us to our redemption and turn us to our Saviour – the only way we could be saved. These laws were only needed until the real Lamb gave His life for us. Make sense?
God gave us the Ten Commandments because He loves us. They were not nailed to the cross. God knew that life would be far better if we kept each of these simple guidelines to a happy life. I invite you to take another look at the Ten Commandments and ask the Lord to help you to keep them. God has special blessings waiting for you. Trust Him.

Today’s Task: Please give the Ten Commandments a chance. Try keeping them even if you only plan to do so for a while. But remember that God never gave us an option. They were never nailed to the cross and will stand forever. Ask the Lord to help you to keep them. Praise Him for giving them to us for our benefit. God has given you simple guidelines – please follow them.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I praise You that You love us so much. I thank You that Your Word can interpret itself. I thank You that You did not nail Your gift of the Ten Commandments to the cross. Please help us to keep them with Your strength. Please forgive us for breaking Your commandments in the past. I thank You for giving us guidelines that will benefit us. Help us to keep them and reap the benefits. We love You Lord. Amen.

Day 110

BE CONTENT

Today’s Text: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. (Exodus 20:17)

Today’s Thoughts: To covet means to desire something that does not belong to you. It means that we are not totally content with what we already have. God loves us and provides for all our needs. If there is anything we need, we simply need to go to the Lord in prayer – He owns everything. God hears and answers our prayers, but sometimes His answers differ from what we hoped for. God wants us to learn to be content with what He has blessed us with, knowing that He knows what is truly best for us.

Today’s Testimony: God doesn’t want us to covet; He wants us to be content with what we have. If we covet, sooner or later we will be going the next step and breaking another commandment. We may steal, place something else as our god or as an extra god, commit adultery, start living a different life and causing shame to God’s name, tell lies to be popular or “better off” in whatever way, start doing our own thing on the Lord’s day, place ourselves above our parents or others or even kill in order to have a “happier life”. Sin often leads to more sin. The life of sin is not to be coveted, yet so many walk down that road. It is a life of pain, regret and heartache. God has a life of joy available to everyone who follows Him all the way. Yes we will have pain and sorrow in this life, but His peace and strength will see us through, and one day we can enjoy a life free from sorrow with our Saviour in Heaven. I want that life, and it is available to me. I choose to live for my God now. He knows I will be far happier, and I’ve experienced it.
I mentioned once before (Today’s T’s Day 2) that I once asked the Lord to help me to live up to my name. My name, Lindy, means beautiful. I asked the Lord to help me to be beautiful on the inside, but added that I wouldn’t mind if He made me beautiful on the outside too. He changed me inside and outside. I am happy with my physical appearance now. I don’t wear make-up. I don’t feel I need it, but my main reason is simply this: I asked the Lord to make me beautiful and He intervened. In my opinion, for me to now go and wear make-up would be like saying, “Thanks Lord, but You didn’t do a good enough job.” I am content with what the Lord has done with my physical appearance. I have no desire to change it. For me to wear make-up and jewellery would, for me, be an insult to my God, and I therefore stick to displaying my natural beauty that the Lord has blessed me with. I am content.
There is one thing that we must never be content without, and that is the Lord. God is so good and created us that we will never be fully content without Him. Many people have obtained everything that money can buy, but they are still left empty inside because they haven’t met the Lord. Then there are those that try and fill that gap with friends, entertainment, harmful substances and practices, or even work, but they too are left empty. Only God can truly satisfy the longing of our hearts. He created us to be His people, and we will not be content unless we are. But then there are people that “know” the Lord, but still feel empty. Those are the people that have a head-knowledge of God. The people who have a heart-knowledge of God will be content – their longing for God will be totally satisfied. The problem is that so many people either don’t know God or only have a head-knowledge of Him. We need to know the Lord personally and then we will be content no matter who else or what else is in or out of our lives. God will bless us with what He knows we need – all else is unnecessary.
There is peace in being content and not coveting what we don’t have. God wants us to experience that peace, and that’s why He gave us this commandment. If we are unsatisfied, we will never be happy. God can and will provide all that we truly need. We need to learn to trust Him.

Today’s Task: Be thankful for what you have. Don’t look elsewhere to satisfy your desires. If you have desires – look to God, but be willing to submit to His will – He knows what’s best for you. Be content with what you have. God has truly blessed us with so much.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I praise You that You provide for all our needs. I thank You that our heart’s desire can be satisfied in knowing You personally. Help us to know You. Lord help us to be content with everything that You have blessed us with and not to covet the life or things that we don’t have. Life is best lived in You – help us to realize that. I thank You that You give us the peace and strength to live a joyful and contented life in You, no matter what. You are all we need. Lord may we know You as never before. Amen.

Day 109

BE HONEST IN ALL YOU SAY

Today’s Text: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
(Exodus 20:16)

Today’s Thoughts: Some translations of the Bible word this commandment: “Thou shalt not lie.” Whichever way you want to word it, it simply tells us that God wants us to be honest in all we say. Titus 1:2 tells us that God cannot lie. According to 1 Peter 2:21, we are to follow in Christ’s steps. For one, let me say that I’m so glad that my God cannot and will not lie. Imagine if we couldn’t take Him at His word?! Imagine if we couldn’t trust Him fully?! God is totally trustworthy. He wants us to be trustworthy as well. He wants to know that we will do all that we say. And He wants to know that we will speak only the truth. Let us only speak what is pure.

Today’s Testimony: Have you ever heard someone say something negative about someone else and then “justify” it by saying, “I’m being honest.” There is a time to be honest and there is also a time to hold back what you feel like saying knowing that it is downing someone else. Never ever gossip about others – you may be sharing the truth, but is your conversation pleasing God? God loves each person that we want to speak negatively about. The truth is that that person is valuable; therefore, if we want to decrease that person’s value we are not speaking honestly at all. We all have our faults. No one likes to be the subject of a gossip session. The Lord wants us to speak encouraging words to and about each other; not break others down.
There are so many testimonies that I could share of how the Lord intervened for me when I was under attack, but I cannot share them because it would break down those who were attacking. The testimonies that wouldn’t make sense by being too vague if I didn’t share details about those tearing me down, I cannot share. These are testimonies that only the Lord and I can share, at least at this stage. Yes if they were shared they would glorify God, and they are true, but sharing would bring negative thoughts about those who were meaning well, but breaking down. My point – only speak what is truthful if it will have a positive result and no negative one.
I once wrote a test and got a really poor mark for it. I then noticed that one of my wrong answers had been over-looked. I then went to my teacher and told her. My mark was dropped even lower, but I had a clean conscience. It is definitely not always easy to be honest, but God requires it of us and the clear conscience is far better than the guilt.
As Christians we need to live as Christ’s followers and not live a lie. On another note it may not always be easy, but we must never be ashamed of our God no matter what the cost of following Him. God will be with His faithful people and will carry them through mild and great persecution. Even if we are tortured till death Christ will still be with us every step of the way. Satan will try everything to get us to bring shame to our God and to get us to forsake Him. Our reward is in heaven; we must be bold Christians who will not shy away from the truth – that we have found a God that it is worth dying for. Christ died for us – let us be bold in following Him and not lie that we are not His people, no matter what the cost.
One benefit of only being truthful is a clear conscience. Sometimes being truthful will bring peace and joy; other times it will bring suffering and sorrow, but God will give us strength to bear it all. God will bless those who are truthful. Some will receive their rewards now; others will receive them in heaven. God wants us to be honest in all we say. Let’s ask Him for the strength to obey His command.

Today’s Task: Be honest in all you say. Ask the Lord for the strength to do so. Encourage others and build them up; don’t tear them down. Be willing to speak the truth at all costs. Ask the Lord to help you discern when to be open and honest and when to refrain from sharing. Thank the Lord that His promises are true. Our God cannot lie – praise Him.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I praise You that You are honest with us. I thank You that Your promises are all true. I thank You that You will always do what’s best for us. Please help us to always speak the truth, but only when You would have us do so. Help us to be faithful examples of who You are. Help us to be unashamed Christians. Help us to follow You till death. Lord we love You. Amen.

Day 108

BE HONEST IN ALL YOU DO

Today’s Text: Thou shalt not steal. (Exodus 20:15)

Today’s Thoughts: God has blessed us with everything we need. If there is ever anything that we don’t have but do need, God is able to provide – we just need to trust Him. If there are still things we want, but do not need, we need to learn to be content. There is never a reason to steal. Stealing is taking something that belongs to somebody else. We may think it would not affect that person at all, but God wants us to be totally honest in all we do.

Today’s Testimony: Let me start by sharing something that I found very interesting. According to Leviticus 6:1-7, the consequence for theft was that one had to restore what was taken and add another fifth to it. In Exodus 22:4 we read that the consequence for being found with the theft alive (when an animal was taken) was that one had to restore double. In Exodus 22:1 we read that if one stole an animal and killed it or sold it a sheep would have to be restored four times and an ox would have to be restored five times. Do you have any idea why the consequences were different under different circumstances? Think about it… one is probably an object, one a sheep and the other a cow. Could it be due to the mind’s corruption level? If your mind is evil enough to steal a whole cow, which you can easily get caught with, and then kill the cow that doesn’t belong to you – how corrupt is your mind? That means you had the desire to steal; that desire was strong enough to take something as huge as a cow with a high risk of getting caught; and then you still killed that cow that belonged to someone else. God doesn’t want us to sin full stop. But it must sadden Him so much to see how great our desire to sin can be sometimes. When He sees the risk we are willing to take in order to satisfy that desire to sin it must break His heart. He wants us to be blameless and honest. He doesn’t want us to deceive others and take what is theirs. He wants us to trust Him to provide all that we need and He wants us to learn to be content with what we have.
So what have you stolen lately? Have you stolen respect, affection or anything else that was due to someone else? Have you stolen any of those things from the Lord? The Lord wants to be first in your life – have you stolen His position and given it to yourself, someone else or something else? The Lord wants to be your only God – have you stolen that position and distributed it elsewhere? The Lord wants you to reverence His name – have you stolen that respect from Him? The Lord wants to spend one full day with you each week – have you stolen that day for yourself? The Lord wants you to respect His people – have you stolen that respect from others? The Lord wants you to love His people – have you stolen that love from others? The Lord wants you to keep yourself pure – have you stolen that purity? The Lord wants you to be totally honest in all you do – have you stolen that honesty? The Lord wants you to be totally honest in all you say – have you stolen that honesty? The Lord wants you to be content – have you stolen that contentment from yourself? Is there anything that you have taken away from God, yourself or others that rightfully belongs to the one you stole it from? Be honest with yourself. Be honest in all you do.
Quite a while ago (Today’s T’s Day 34) I spoke to you about returning tithe to the Lord. In Malachi 3:8 God says that if we don’t return ten-percent of what He blesses us with we are actually robbing God. That too is quite a thought. I encourage you to not steal God’s money – He only asked for one-tenth.
The greatest benefit of keeping this commandment is a clear conscience. You will also find that you are a lot happier. God knew that keeping this commandment would spare us a lot of guilt and sorrow and that’s why He gave it. Try it. Take God at His word. He blesses those who trust Him.

Today’s Task: Do not steal anything from anyone. Live an honest life in all you do. Never ever allow your mind’s corruption level to increase – ask the Lord to help you clear your mind of all evil thoughts and intensions. Keep your conscience pure. Whatever you do – do not steal your opportunity to spend eternity with the Lord from yourself. Make sure that you are living totally within the Lord’s will.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I thank You that You care about us so much. Help us to give to You, ourselves and others whatever is due. Help us to never take away what belongs to others. Lord I thank You that You always provide for our needs. Please help us to be content with what we have. Please help us to have pure and honest minds that only do what is pure and honest. I thank You that You are merciful to us. We love You Lord. Amen.

Day 107

KEEP YOURSELF PURE

Today’s Text: Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14)

Today’s Thoughts: God wants the best for us. He intended for one man to marry one wife and remain together for the rest of their lives. He wanted them to grow in their love toward each other, but sadly, today we see so many discontent couples. Some stick together in spite of the loss of love and affection, but most people today rather choose to end their union. Even worse, some individuals start looking elsewhere instead of trying to patch up the brokenness. God blesses the union of marriage. Let us remain pure and happy in all our relationships.

Today’s Testimony: God wants us all to be pure. Firstly let me speak to those who are not married. He wants us to reserve ourselves for only one person. This includes emotionally – He desires for us to wait for His leading instead of dating without further intensions. Some say, “But how am I supposed to know if he or she is the one if we don’t date?” To that I’d like to say that for starters: pray about it. If you know you would never marry each other, it is in your best interest not to waste your emotions. Be friends first. The one you spend the rest of your life with must be your best friend. If you are not best friends – don’t date. If you are not best friends then what ever you do – don’t marry. The one you marry should be the one you can be “naked and unashamed” with – this is the term I use to refer to being able to be totally open and honest with each other, even about your bad side, and know that you are both still safe and loved. So now you want to know what this has to do with committing adultery. Let me explain it this way…. Do you believe in having only one spouse? That means that you believe that God has that someone special for you somewhere. So if God has a prince or princess that He is preparing especially for you – could we describe it as you already belong to that person in a sense. Now for you to waste your emotions or more on someone before your spouse is stealing affection due only to him or her. Does that make sense? Imagine you meet that prince or princess and he/she has kept himself/herself totally pure for you and you haven’t done the same. Do you think maybe you’d wish you had the same to offer? Every time you get emotionally bonded to someone you leave a piece of yourself behind when you leave. I encourage you to save yourself for the one God leads to. If you have already not kept yourself fully, from now on, I encourage you to keep yourself pure so you can offer your prince or princess as much as possible. You won’t regret it.
Now a message for those who are married…. In an article in one of my exam papers a while ago I read a statement that basically said that the problems that arise in marriages in not due to conflict, but to a loss of love and affection. Think about it, if you focused on nurturing the love you share or on restoring the love you once had, that love and care for each other will hold you together no matter what conflicts you may face. God wants us to be happy and content in our relationships.
Now a message for both the married and unmarried…. As with the sixth commandment, Christ also took the seventh commandment a few steps further (Matthew 5:27-32). He said that if a man looks at a woman to lust after her, he has already committed adultery in his heart. That applies to both married and unmarried and the same goes for a woman thinking lustfully about a man. God wants our hearts, minds and bodies to be pure. He gave us guidelines to keep us happy in our relationships. He doesn’t want us to waste any affections due only to our present or future spouses. He knows the greater joy that can only be found in waiting and staying. Christ also said that those who are divorced should not marry again unless they divorced due to unfaithfulness (the innocent one would be free). This is an extremely controversial subject which I am not going to delve into, but you may read for yourself what Christ had to say in Matthew 19:3-9 (see also Deuteronomy 24:1-4).
Finally I have to mention that God must be our First Love. We must love God above all others and then allow Him to allocate our love where He will have it. Never begin a relationship without the Lord’s guidance. If you are in one that you know He is not pleased with – get out. If you are married or in a relationship under God’s guidance – work on nurturing your love for each other. If that love is lost or maybe never even existed – work on restoring your love for each other or on developing a love for each other. God wants us to be happy. The benefits of keeping this commandment are a pure heart, mind and body and true happiness. Aim for purity.

Today’s Task: Love yourself and your present or future prince or princess enough to keep yourself pure. Don’t wander anywhere else even in thought. Your emotions, affections and body belong to only one. If you are married - be content in the relationship you have. If you are single – wait for God’s timing and leading. If you are in a relationship – continue to ask the Lord to make His will known to you and then move forward or get out as He leads. God wants us to be happy within our relationships; He wants the best for us. He has given us guidelines – let’s follow them. Let us give our love and affection totally to God and let Him lead us in our love and affection for those around us. God loves you – love Him back.

Today’s Thanks: Lord I thank You that even though we have not always been faithful to You as our God, You have been faithful to us and love us with a love that we don’t deserve. You have not divorced us for our unfaithfulness – You are waiting for us to return. Please help us to return and remain in You. Lord I thank You that You have given us guidelines for happy relationships. Please help us to remain totally pure in thought and action at all times. We want to have the peace of knowing that we are living in Your will. Please lead and guide us in our earthly relationships. But most importantly – please help us in our relationship with You. Lord give us a love for the ones you have led us to, or will lead us to, that only You can give. We want to be pure and happy. I thank You that You will help us. Amen.