Are You on the Right Path to Receive God’s Best?

Did you ever do a pencil maze as a child? If so, you remember using your pencil to trace a line from an entry point to (you hoped!) the goal at the center of the maze. But if you traced your line down the wrong part of the maze, you wound up at a dead end and had to go back and start over again, maybe only to come up against yet another dead end. Frustrating, wasn’t it?

We want to help you avoid the same kind of wasted effort in your pursuit of a godly marriage. We want to make sure you’re on the right path to start with. You see, before you can meaningfully ask the question of whether you’re ready to receive God’s best in marriage, you have to determine if you are even a candidate for God’s best in the first place. Let us suggest five tests you can give yourself to find out.

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Relationship Idolatry

Are you more devoted to God than to your desire for a soul mate?

What does the word “idol” mean to you? A certain reality show featuring aspiring singers? Aspirations to achieve the status of a favorite athlete, actress or writer? Exotic trinkets that supposedly bring either good or “taboo” to their bearers, depending on the whims of the “god” or “gods” they represent?

For Christians and non-Christians alike, it’s easy to restrict the perception of an “idol” to a blatant act of sin, such as the one found in Exodus 32. True, we may not hoist an actual golden calf aloft in worship before the God of the universe. In 2011, the sin of idolatry tends to be far more insidious, creeping bit by bit into our lives and replacing our relationship with Christ with a worldly “Savior.” As Christians, what should we guard ourselves against when it comes to “modern day” idols? What do they even look like?

For single believers in particular, the idol can be something that, in and of itself, is holy and ordained by God himself: The desire for marriage and a soul mate. Of course, there is nothing wrong with seeking a godly spouse to love, honor and cherish until death do you part. Nor is there anything inherently sinful about picturing a dream wedding, or the (seemingly) perfect spouse to take home at the end of that celebratory night. None of these things are a sin in and of themselves, of course; a marriage that honors Christ is both holy and good. After all, God himself stated in Genesis that is “not good” for man to be alone, and created Eve. But at what point do we cross the line and become engaged (pardon the pun) in the all-consuming sin of idolatry?

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