Your Days Are Ordained

Your Days Are Ordained TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: …All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:16, NIV. TODAY'S WORD: God has already planned out every detail of your life right down to the very second. Think about our solar system, the way it rotates. Scientists tell us that every year it’s exactly on time down to the millisecond, day after day, year after year. Hundreds of years from now if the Lord tarries, it will still be precise. That’s because our God is not an approximate God. He is an exact God, a detailed God, a precise God. He has planned out your life not just to the years or the months or the days, but down to the very second. In your future, He has marked moments where time and eternity are going to come together, and you will be at the right place and get the break you need. Scripture says that before you were born, God knew you. He knew every one of your days before they ever took shape. Trust Him and stay in peace because your days are ordained by the Lord. PRAYER FOR TODAY: Father, I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Thank You for ordering my steps and ordaining my future. I trust You as You lead and guide me into victory in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Marriage Reveals, Not Creates Problems

BY RICK WARREN — AUGUST 3, 2014

“In the end, people appreciate honest criticism far more than flattery.”(Proverbs 28:23 NLT)

If you’re single and you’re prolonging a relationship that you know is going nowhere, don’t continue it. “But I won’t have anybody to take me out on Friday night,” you say. A bad marriage is a million times worse than not going out on Friday night! The longer you’re in a relationship, the more difficult it’s going to be to get out of it.

Proverbs 28:23 says, “In the end, people appreciate honest criticism far more than flattery” (NLT).

Size that person up quickly, particularly related to emotional health. Don’t be afraid to ask questions like, “Do you have uncontrolled anger?” “Can we talk about me?” or “Will you pick up the tab?”

Regardless of the emotional state of your partner, you need to begin with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ yourself. If you haven’t done that, you need to start there. You need to get spiritually connected to God.

Next I want to challenge you to commit yourself to God’s standard and not let oceans of emotions sway you into making a stupid decision. Given the right situation, you may fall in love with the idea of being in love. And that may lead to a foolish decision!

Don’t date until your own emotional hurts are healed or at least in the healing process. Get rid of the bitterness. Get rid of the anger problem. Get rid of your baggage.

I remember marrying a couple many years ago at Saddleback. About five years later we had them over for dinner. The woman told me, “When I walked down the aisle in that white dress, I had no idea that I was carrying an entire bag of emotional garbage on my back. And I took all that garbage into the marriage.”

Marriage does not create problems. It reveals them. The more you can deal with it before you get married, the happier, more God-honoring, and more fulfilling your marriage is going to be. You will have that deep soul intimacy that is personal, relational, sexual, and spiritual. It is the oneness that comes from being unified by a relationship to God, your purpose, and your calling.

Talk It Over

• What changes do you think you need to make before you get married? Or, where do you need to heal in order to be ready for marriage?
• How do you think your relationships will change if you commit to God’s standards?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxTwyqIIthk
• What are the hard questions you need to ask in your relationship?
• If you’re married, what kind of baggage might you have carried into your marriage? How will you seek healing?
• If you’re married, how can you help singles that are struggling with baggage, or need healing, or appear to be letting emotions sway them toward a foolish decision?