Second, commit your body totally to God. Place your body, without reservation, on the altar of God’s service. And when you place your body on the altar, the altar sanctifies that which is placed upon it and you have a body that has been made holy by meeting God’s conditions. And of course, it’s so important that believers enter marriage with bodies that have been sanctified by fulfilling God’s condition.

Third, be prepared for death and resurrection. I pointed out, and I pointed it out mainly on the basis of personal experience, that anything that God really blesses usually has to die and be resurrected. So when you’ve made these commitments and taken these steps and everything seems to die on you, don’t be discouraged. There’ll be death in the fall, but resurrection in the spring. Just have the faith to wait through winter till the spring comes and you’ll be delighted above all that you’ve never expressed or believed with what God resurrects in your life.

Today I’m going to outline four more steps that can lead you into God’s highest will for marriage. First, cultivate right friends and right fellowship. That’s extremely important. This is included in walking in the light of the Word of God. In the first epistle of John chapter 1 verse 7, John says this:

“If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

I’ve spoken earlier about the fact that the Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. So, walking in the light includes walking in obedience to the written Word of God. And John says if we do that, if we walk in obedience to God’s written Word, if we walk in the light, we have fellowship one with another. That is we have fellowship with other believers who are also walking in the light. And He says the blood of Jesus His Son, cleanses us, continually cleanses us from all sin. We’re kept from sin through our obedience to the Word of God. We’re sanctified, we’re set apart to God. We’re placed in an area where Satan cannot touch us. Remember then, the light is God’s Word.

Now, the kind of fellowship that we have is very decisive in this matter of marriage. Because in most cases, though not in all cases, marriage develops out of friendship. Normally, a person marries someone with whom they have to some degree become friendly, at least. So, if we have the wrong friends, it’s very probable that we’ll end up by marrying the wrong kind of person. But if we always cultivate the right friends, if our friends are other committed believers with the same goals, the same faith, the same commitment as ourselves, then it’s very much easier for God, out of those friends with whom we fellowship, to provide us the mate of His choice.

All right, the second step that I’m speaking about today is this: realize your value. It always grieves me when Christians don’t appreciate their own value, when they belittle themselves, underestimate themselves, and even speak critically of themselves. I’m sure they don’t realize what they’re doing, but they are really criticizing God and His workmanship. For in Ephesians 2:10, Paul says this:

“For we are His workmanship [that’s God’s workmanship] created in Christ Jesus, for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

We are God’s workmanship, His new cre

God Is A Matchmaker

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