Daily devotion – Thursday 23rd September 2021
How does one find the person you believe God has for you to marry?
In a short answer, you don’t find the one, God does! In our pre-marriage counselling with couples planning on being married, we ask the couples the question, why do you believe that this person is the one you should marry?
Often people will say firstly, because I love them, or I just feel they are wonderful, or I think they are beautiful or handsome.
Neither of those responses are the right answer for a Christian planning to marry someone for the rest of their lives. The only answer that is correct is the following – “I want to marry (fill in the blank) because I believe it is God’s will for us to be wed. That this person is the one God has chosen to be my bride or my groom.”
In Genesis 24 which is the longest chapter in Genesis, we read the beautiful story of Isaac and Rebekah. The bride to be selected for Isaac had to be chosen with particular care, since she would be the mother of the multitude of nations which God had promised would come through Abraham’s seed, through which the promised Savior would come, and in which all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
All fathers and mothers would do well to study carefully the principles guiding the preparations for this marriage as they contemplate those of their children.
For the sake of time, after you have read all of chapter 24 you will see that God had led Abraham’s servant, Eliezer, who is a type of the Holy Spirit, in this amazing story, to Rebekah.
Gen 24:26 “Then the man bowed down his head and worshiped the LORD.
Gen 24:27 And he said, “Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being on the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master’s brethren.”
Both Rebekah’s father, Bethuel and her brother Laban, acknowledged that God had led Eliezer to select Rebekah as Isaac’s bride.
Genesis 24:50 Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “The LORD has obviously brought you here, so there is nothing we can say.”
Far too often Christian marriages fail because haste and sometimes desperation has seen two people enter a commitment that God had no hand in.
I see all too often, people clamouring to situations purely for the sake of find their partner. Sometimes even heading out into the world scene, in desperation taking matters completely into their own hand.
So how does one find the person you are to marry? You don’t! God is never in a hurry, and neither should His children ever be, especially in the second biggest decision of their lives.
As I look at Isaac and Rebekah’s relationship, because God planned their getting together, they loved each other dearly and their marriage was one made in heaven!
We trust our eternal souls with our blessed Lord, but something seems to a ‘tilt’ in this trust, when people take the matter of marriage relationship into their own hands. It is the most foolish decision to do so, and the outcome can result in hell on earth.
If you at this moment are single, and you are hurrying to find your spouse, it is time right now to repent of not trusting in God to find you your future other half. Instead, serve the Lord with all your heart, be about His business, and let Him bring to you as He did with Isaac and Rebekah, your perfect spouse.
For marriage under God’s hand just gets better and better each day. You as a husband or wife are ever grateful to God for giving to you the man or the woman He chose and not you.
Genesis 24 is the place to go to mum and dad to share with your children how one finds the person you are to marry. Patience, trust, and obedience are the foundation stones to seeing the right decision made and God glorified!
Proverbs 3: 5 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;”