Complete in Christ 4 ever.

I thought about a way to relate 62 scriptures that I found relating to being single, dating, or getting married and figured the best way would be to categorize them. Since married life is where most singles are headed and singles must prepare in someway for that time in their life I thought I would include some scriptures dealing with marriage in this article too. For instance when the Word says rejoice with the wife of your youth it wouldn’t do much good to be with someone now who you don’t rejoice with as a single person. So though it seems like overstating the obvious we do point it out in here.

I found five dominant themes in looking at the Word concerning completeness in Christ. And by complete I mean not clingy, attention seeking, and always in a relationship singleness. I mean someone who is okay with being alone for a while. Someone who is preoccupied with their destiny in the Lord rather than walking around church, home, and their job with a gaping hole in their heart. They have learned to fill up on God and replace loneliness with intimacy with Jesus.

To do this I believe five things need defining and explaining. They are You, Jesus, Them, the Behavior, and the Process.

To begin with you need some revelation about you. Col 2:10 says, And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power:” Paul later states in 4:12, “ Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant, saluteth you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” Notice 2:10 says what you already are spiritually speaking. He is not saying you will be one day when you get married to the right person or have kids by them. Right now you are as complete as you will ever need to be because of Jesus living inside you. Col 4:12 is a prayer that you will stand in life like this Word is true. You see it doesn’t just fall off like ripe cherries from a tree. Sometimes you have to meditate on what scripture says to get what is rightfully yours.

 Eph 1:3 says “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:” Notice here he says “hath blessed” that is past tense. You already are complete. Whether you ever know it or not. You are! Why should we relegate everything to the future or sweet by and by when it is ours rightfully so right now!

Peter says in 1Peter 1:2-4 “that Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and Jesus our Lord, according as His Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in this world through lust.”

As you get to know God better you partake of His nature. Can you imagine God having a need unfulfilled? Can you imagine Him walking around with a hole in His heart? Well, as you imagine Him complete He imagines you that way too. Eph 3:19 says, “ And to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God’” Like Father like son or daughter. You become like the people you hang around with. Get it!

Next you need to know about Jesus. Isaiah 34:16,” Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and His Spirit it hath gathered, everyone with her mate.” This is a very powerful position to take if you are looking for leverage with the Word for a mate. Notice God’s Spirit does the drawing and we are doing the seeking out of the Word. Usually we are okay with seeking but it isn’t out of the Word it’s out of the world or wherever. And we are also doing the drawing with our eyes, clothes, habits words and whatever other tool we can find at our disposal.

 But if we obey and diligently seek after God in His Word simultaneously He is pulling it all together for us in our lives. Trust just like a little child that He is. In fact He goes on to say in Isaiah 54:4-6, “Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of your youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.(God is in control, not time) For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of Hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth is He called. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.” See also Jer 31:32.

When is the last time we said out loud so we could hear it, Lord Jesus you are my Husband, or Lord you are my Mate. You are all I need and more. Well there you have it. That Word reinforces our completeness in Christ. I think it’s important to note here that when you open the door for Jesus to come in with your words and heart willingly He will put on whatever hat you need Him to. Faith comes from the Word, but it is specific to a need. When you want to be an airline pilot you wouldn’t study tanks. You read up on airplanes. It’s the same with God. He told Moses I Am who I Am. Whatever you need is whatever I Am.

Isaiah 61:1 says, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;” He is your difference maker. When you come out of a relationship that failed and you can hardly breathe. He is your oxygen tank. When you want to close the blinds and check out He is you house call! When you are afraid to see someone because of the pain they caused you He is your shield and exceedingly great reward. He can deal with your trauma. He’s the ward you need to check into!

Someone says nobody knows my pain. Mal 2:14 says, “ Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.” He goes on to say He hates divorce because it brings violence into our lives. It is the rupturing of an eternal covenant. We weary Him when we grumble and complain about the lack of judgement upon evildoers such as these who deal treacherously with the wife of their youth. There time is coming remember it is the goodness of the Lord that brings us to repentance.

Listen to King David’s cry in Psalm 30:10, “ Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me: Lord, be thou my Helper.” You see here is where the rubber meets the road. Do you help yourself when you don’t truly expect Him to make up the difference? Or maybe you didn’t know He would? Sure God sent Jesus to save us from our sins. But, does He have the time to care for us, and our relationships down here on earth? I think so. Jer 29:11 says, “ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not evil, to give you an expected end.” Psalm 72:12, “ For He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.” Hebrews 13:6, “ So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”

So we have looked at ourselves and the Lord in terms of singleness. That leaves the other party. What shall we say then if we are willing to become as the person we are looking for. Then we can be as picky as we want to be about them. Remember though that if want a 10 we need to be a 10. With that said I see two predominant themes here. Something they are and something they do. Actions speak louder than words but you can’t be something you aren’t. So let’s let the Word rightly divide for us what we should be looking for in a mate.

I Peter 3:4 says, we should spend time focusing on adorning the hidden man of the heart and not just the outward physical appearance. I will say it’s nice to look at someone dressed up and made up because it shows they care  about themselves. But, if upon further digging you find an empty mine shaft where their lovely spirit should be then you might feel like all you really found was fool’s gold. It looked like it form the outside but it wasn’t the real deal at all. Now you have been with this person for awhile thinking that you are going to strike it rich with them but instead you’re the fool for even trying.

Psalm 128:3, “ Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.” Before we touch on this potential mate let’s back up to verse 1 Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord; that walketh in His ways.” It is way to easy to forget we have a part to play in their development. Hold on a minute you say. They are their own person.  I don’t hold sway over them otherwise they are just a weak person. They ought to be able to think for themselves. No, I am not talking about them being a robot around you or like some kind of puppet on a string.

But, think about Galatians 6:7, it says, “ God is not mocked, whatever a man sows that shall he also reap.” If you think that you can run around and just do and say whatever you want, and then all of the sudden God just spring upon you the person of your dreams then you are sadly mistaken. He wouldn’t do that evil thing to them! But conversely if you are seeking out of the book of the Lord as mentioned above then you can rest assured you will reap that same behavior in their life. If you say well I do but they don’t then guess what they may not be the one He has for you. Stop cruisin’ for a bruisin’ and come back down to reality. If you plant the seed you will reap the harvest.