God My Husband – Part 2 - God's Love at Work - Week of December 8

God My Husband – Part 2
by Margaret D. Mitchell

"For your Maker is your husband—The Lord Almighty is His name—The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; He is called the God of all the earth."  -Isaiah 54:5

Don’t Cheat On God In Singleness

Have you ever considered that defying God’s precepts is cheating on Him? You are in relationship with Him, correct? He is all about truth. Are you?

Being true to your First Love through honor and reverence will not only guard you against heartbreak but will keep the door to true intimacy open and fear out.

When we stop cheating on God, we stop cheating ourselves…out of His blessings.

We are called to live holy lives, to be set apart (1 Peter 1:2). What is holy about chasing after what our flesh desires? We died to flesh when we received Jesus as Our Lord and Savior and opted to follow Him. Remember?

We get what we choose. So choose wisely.

2 Timothy 2:20-22 reminds us…

 "In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work. Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts."

If you’re going on dates with different men and feeling disappointed in what you’re finding, you’re setting yourself up for a tough road of heartbreak because you have put your hope in them, which is not of God. God is about wholeheartedness! He does not want your heart to be fractured by you putting your hope and trust in uncertainty—someone or something that He did not call you to or assign to you.

So save yourself the distress. Don’t throw the righteous pearls in your heart to pigs. Don’t let the enemy wear you out, disappoint you, diminish your faith or harden your heart through your own foolish choices. If you do, you will struggle to love the promised earthly husband God has chosen for you.

When we wait on God to fulfill the desires He put in our hearts, we plant a seed of honor, we remain true to Him as our First Love, our First Husband, Our Father, Our Friend, Our Lord. And He will faithfully deliver His promises to you His way.

It’s not always easy to wait. So remind yourself that every seed you plant—good or bad—produces a crop. And you will eat the fruit of it.

Choose to put your trust in God alone.

Don’t Cheat On God In Marriage

In God’s eyes, putting our husbands before God (or our children or anyone or anything else) in our heart is idolatry; and God will not let us get away with it because He is a jealous God. He is jealous for you! Yes, you!

I learned this lesson the hard way: When I first married my husband, I relaxed my communion with God, thinking I could kick back and let my husband lead my walk.

I couldn’t have been more wrong! God had purposed me to be more developed into one of His leaders, and there I was—in my ignorance—working against Him!

I was choosing slothfulness by default for not maintaining my relationship with God, for which I am solely responsible. This was easy for me to do because I was single for a long time. And I was thrilled to have someone else I could lean on. To be honest, I felt like I deserved some “time out” from being solely responsible.

But God knew that my “time out” would lead to my “down time.”

And so God immediately shouted at me: “You will NOT put your husband before Me!” And even now, years later, I can still hear His Words resound through my soul. God knew just how to get me off to His best start despite my foolishness.

God’s ways are always for our good. In my case, God already knew what I would soon learn: no earthy husband is perfect, but He is. And when we find ourselves faced with this reality in our husbands, we always have our First Husband to run to. And He will make it better. Always.

And the way we can run fastest toward Our Maker is to remain closely connected to Him as our power source. Don’t lay down your power for any reason. 

Margaret D. Mitchell is the Founder of God's Love at Work, a marketplace outreach purposed to share God's greatest power source - the love of Christ. This devotional was adapted from Margaret's forthcoming book, Enduring Grace. All rights reserved.