And when I passed by again, I saw that you were old enough for love. So I wrapped my cloak around you to cover your nakedness and declared my marriage vows. I made a covenant with you, says the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.(EZEKIEL 16:8-14)
In the above scripture the Lord is speaking of the children of Israel. In the Bible the relationship between God and the Jews is often compared to that of a husband and wife. Here we see the Lord expressing the moment when He first took her and made her His wife. A key portion of this verse is the Lord’s declaration that He saw that she was old enough (or ready) for love. As a single Christian woman you will have many seasons when you feel that you are ready for love.
However, it is only when God says that you are ready that you are truly ready. To be “ready” means that you are fully prepared and willing. Many are willing but not many are prepared. So, how do you know when you are ready for love?
Recognizing your reediness for love is different for each person because, again, only God knows when you have come to that place. Although the paths to that place may vary the starting point is similar. Everyone must start at the point of faith, not faith that you will find love, but faith in God’s love for you.…I have loved thee with an everlasting love:(Jeremiah 31:3) For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. (Jeremiah 29:11) God has so much in store for you but only He knows when you are ready to receive those things. He sees you and He knows you better than you know yourself. He sees every flaw, every weakness, all your insecurities, and all the things that you are secretly ashamed of, but still He covers them and He makes a covenant with you. He pledges His love unto you. He takes you as you are and He makes you His own. When you grab hold to the truth of God’s love for you, then your love for Him will grow stronger. Many people are quick to say how much they love the Lord, but not many Christians have really fallen in love with God. It doesn’t matter how long you have been saved, how active you are in ministry, or how much you feel you have sacrificed. The depth of this love is only revealed between you and the Lord, it is not based on anything that you can manipulate but rather the position of your heart. …for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. (1 Sam 16:7) You have to get to the place where God is the love of your life, where He is all you need, and all you want. You must be so in love that even if you never get married, in your heart, you are satisfied with all that God is to you, because He has become your everything. This will require a deeper level of intimacy.
Before you consider starting a relationship with a spouse you have to evaluate and build a stronger relationship with the Lord. You may feel that a spouse will supply a particular need or fill a void in your life. But as a Christian, God is the supplier of every need.
Notice, that Adam did not ask God for a wife, it was God who decided that Adam should have a companion, so He gave him Eve. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.(genesis 2:18) Adam was so much in love with God that he never felt like something was lacking. Eve wasn’t given to Adam to fill a void, she was given as an addition to his life, because Adam had reached a place in his maturity where the Lord saw that he was now ready for love.
Again, faith in God’s love for you will dictate your reediness for love. So let’s consider again the relationship between the Lord and His wife (the Children of Israel). In Ezekiel 16:9-14 we read of how the Lord further shows His love for His wife it reads,9 “Then I bathed you… and I rubbed fragrant oils into your skin.10 I gave you expensive clothing of fine linen and silk, beautifully embroidered, and sandals made of fine goatskin leather.11 I gave you lovely jewelry, bracelets, beautiful necklaces, 12 a ring for your nose, earrings for your ears, and a lovely crown for your head. 13 And so you were adorned with gold and silver. Your clothes were made of fine linen and were beautifully embroidered. You ate the finest foods—choice flour, honey, and olive oil—and became more beautiful than ever. You looked like a queen, and so you were! 14 Your fame soon spread throughout the world because of your beauty. I dressed you in my splendor and perfected your beauty, says the Sovereign Lord.
When you are ready for love God will adorn you first, above anyone else He loved you first and He wants to express that to you. He wants to…
Wash you- remove past hurts, insecurities, and fears.
Clothe you in fine linen- present you in purity, covering past sins
Anoint you with oil- as a sign of your consecration unto Him
Present you with precious jewels- you are His treasure and precious to Him and so He has given you His treasures, spiritual gifts etc…
Feed you with fine foods and honey-nourish you and give you that which is good for you
He wants to adorn you with His love because when you have experienced true love only then will you be able to identify it.
Experiences and our observation of society can alter our view of what true love is. We can sometimes identify love based on what we have seen that we either want or don’t want. There are many young women that have seen dysfunctional relationships. either that of there parents or some other family member or friend and they have identified everything that they don’t want. Personally, my parents marriage was a key component in my understanding of what I thought I wanted. In their relationship I learned from a young age what I did not want and would not tolerate. Although this seemed the logically wise thing to do, it did not serve me well in my young adult years. I found that I had built up a wall of fears which I masked as “having high standards”. Because of this, my process to being ready for love required me to allow the Lord to deal with all of my fears and teach me how to trust Him. I had to believe that He would not hurt me, and therefore I could be confident that He would not give me to someone that would hurt me the way my mom and many of the women in my family have been.
So if like me, your view of love, marriage and relationships has been tainted by what you see around you or what you yourself have experienced, (which is the case for most of us); you need an encounter with real love. Real love comes from the Father and when we receive that love we open ourselves to becoming the women that He has intended us to be. The love of the Father, heals, restores and sets us free; it makes us free to be all He has called us to be and therefore free to receive all the He has for us. We are set free from society's time lines of where we should be, when we should be there, what we should have, how we should look, and how we should feel. God’s love sets us free to receive His will in His timing.
So when you are faced with that aged old question..when are you getting married? You can respond with confidence…WHEN I’M READY!
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