Only by the blood of Jesus

I use a face wash called "purity" and for some unknown reason I decided to read the little saying about it on the bottle. It says this:

"You don't have to be perfect to be pure. Purity is intention. Be truthful with your words and actions. Keep your promises. Purity is perspective. Keep an open mind, and reserve judgement. Purity is principle. Treat others the way you want to be treated. No one is perfect, but we all can be pure. Purity is being your best self."

I'm not going to lie this literally made me cringe.

I even laughed to myself.

"Really? Who even would believe this" I thought. 

Then a sudden sadness swept across me. 

All of America, that's who. 

Those views that are so plainly written on my face wash, are the exact views seen today as "right". Just as long as you try your best. Like it says, "Purity is being your best self."

In all reality, what it's saying doesn't seem too bad. These principles that it says to have, aren't bad ones. Unfortunately, it's missing the key ingredient to have these things.


A theme it seems to invest in is you.
What YOU can do to fix it, how YOU should be pure by things YOU do.

 Purity is not something that is attainable by human hands. Nothing you do will ever be good enough to make you pure.  

You can live your whole life thinking you are doing good, being as pure as you can be. 
But let me tell you what your end result will be: 

Failure.

It might seem dramatic to you, and for that i'm sorry but here is the truth:

No matter how good you think you live your life, no matter how much you try and "fix" or "clean" your self, you will always fail.  

You are incapable of being pure apart from the Lord.


"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-to the glory and praise of God." Philippians 1:9-11 

How do we achieve pureness?

It is not something we can do on our own, but something that must COME THROUGH JESUS.


That is why He died on the cross. FOR YOU. So that we may be near God, because God can't be near sin. He had to do this because we weren't pure. 


"With the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake OF YOU." I peter 1:19

On our own we will never be good enough. 


It doesn't take much to see that when you take Jesus out of the picture, "being pure" and "having good intentions" "keeping promises" and ect. becomes impossible. 

But the GOOD NEWS is that Jesus DID come down to earth to be the sacrifice we needed. We can be pure through Him.

I am grateful when I think about how my King saved me. He not only saved me by washing me clean with His blood, but He saved me from the expectations of this fleeting world. And for that, I will sing His praise. 

Wait no more

The phrase “good things come to those who wait” is a phrase we hear all too 
often. And if I'm being honest it's a phrase I've grown to dislike. 

It makes me feel like we are giving a mask to discontentment, and making it okay.  

What are we waiting on? 

We say it to people that are going through a hard time so that they have 
something to look forward to because “the good is coming”. In a way it’s like we 
are saying to them “it’s okay sulk in your sorrows now because good is coming to 
you”. 

What does that say about the blessings that The Lord IS blessing them with?  

What we seem to leave out is that “the good” they are searching for to 
satisfy them, will eventually cause the same heartache again. Because, what 
exactly is “the good”? 

The right job? The right guy? The right friends? 

All of these things will still leave us longing for more

Instead of “waiting” for good things to come we need to realize that we already have the 
one and only good thing we need. When we see that Jesus is the good, then we 
don’t have to wait anymore. We will see that He is enough.

The problem with “waiting for the good” is that we 
build it up in our minds, and we unleash the desires of our hearts to it. We 
then begin to think that our life will soon be perfect once the good arrives, 
but it never truly will.

God designed us to have a longing in our hearts, but his intention for that was not for us to long for the earthy 
things. He gave us that desire so that we could fall in love with Him.

So instead of feeling as if you are “waiting for the good” I encourage you to look 
at the apostle Paul, who found what it truly means to be joyful, and content in 
any circumstance. He did not do this by “waiting for the good to come” but 
understanding that he already had it.

“For I have learned in whatever situation 
I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound. In 
any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and 
hunger, abundance and
need. I can do all things through [in] Him who strengthens  me.”  

Stop waiting, and surrender to the good that is Jesus Christ. 

His blessings are new each day and He is the well that will never run dry.

If this waiting last forever, I'm afraid I might let go

How much do you truly trust God?

We have seen the sayings, “Let go and Let God.”

We can recite Jeremiah 29:11

We’ve been told all our lives that God has a plan

But do we really trust Him?

What if I was to tell you that God’s plan for your life didn’t involve marriage by the age of 23?

What if I was to tell you, it might not involve marriage at all.

Would you still trust Him? Would you still say He was good?

Now, please don’t get me wrong, I am saying this to myself just as much as I’m saying it to you.

But, I feel we, as Christians, are missing it.

We have single classes at church.

Older people, and married friends jump at the opportunity to fix you up with the new guy that is visiting.

I’m not saying this is wrong  

On the contrary, I think meeting people at church is a great place to do it.

But sometimes it is like they are trying to F I X it. Like singleness means you’re broken.

I was told recently that God would provide the right guy in my life; I just needed to learn to “Truly be satisfied in Him first.”

I’m sorry…what? I really couldn’t believe my ears.

..So what you’re telling me is I’m single because I’m not satisfied in the Lord?

THAT IS NOT TRUE. But more importantly it’s not biblical.  

What scares me the most is that girls really are believing this lie. They believe that they have to “fix” their relationship with God SO that the right guy can be provided. When in reality, that could not be more wrong. When we allow that idea to come into our head we will run into a serious problem. We no longer seek the Lord for the pureness of knowing Him; we will be seeking Him for His gifts.

So I’m going to ask a question that even makes me uncomfortable to think about,

Would you still love and seek The Lord, even if His plan for you didn’t involve a guy?

I think an even more important question to ask is; why is this question so scary? Our purpose on this earth isn’t to get married. Your life won’t begin when you meet “the one” and your life won’t stop if you don’t.

Now I’m not saying that I think just because you're 20 and single means you’re going to be single forever

        

         What I am saying is, don’t let your desire for an earthly relationship take the place of your eternal one.

We are not promised a husband, 2 kids, and a white picket fence. BUT WHAT WE ARE PROMISED IS SO MUCH GREATER.

Instead of worrying or fearing that we aren’t going to get those things, turn your eyes to what we have.  DON’T MISS IT.

You have a savior that LOVES you. Right now, he is reaching out for you. He promises to never leave or forsake you. His love never ends and at His right hand our pleasures forevermore. Trust in that promise.

The earthly desires of our heart are fading.

But our savior is pursing us right now. Go outside at sunset and look at the sky. Go out to the country in the pure darkness and get swept away by the beauty of the stars. Everything like that is Gods way of showing His love for us,

Don’t miss out on a relationship with the creator, while you are too consumed in a fleeting relationship with creation.

So was my purpose in writing this?

To hopefully make you see that without realizing it, we have made marriage an idol in our lives. Especially in the Christian bubble. We talk about being pursued, and how we can’t wait until we can have a Godly guy come into our lives. We daydream at church about the cute boy in front of us taking notes, or maybe we go to certain events because “good Christian boys will be there”

(don’t act like you aren’t guilty of this)

Like I said earlier, I am afraid we are missing it.

My fear is that the most of us will graduate college, guyless and Godless.

We will be tired of chasing after this idea that we are promised a guy. We will begin to harden our hearts to The Lord because we aren’t getting what we thing we deserve. We will let doubt sink into us and ultimately we will give up on The Lord because what’s the point.

So my prayer for every girl facing this road right now is that we will stop putting a guy at the end of our goals. That we will see that we CAN trust in His plan, no matter what that means. Don’t let todays view of singleness ruin your trust in The Lord.

“Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.” Hebrews 12:1

Please Remember that:

Singleness isn’t a disease

Nothing is wrong with you

You are worthy of Love

I promise you God is good no matter if you’re 20 and single or 40 and single.

You are the crown of creation. You are His bride. That will always be enough.