Sometimes you don’t know what is good for you, but God does.

The statement, “relationships can be hard,” is probably an understatement. No matter who you are, there are times you have been lonely, or longed for a relationship. When these times of loneliness creep up it’s easy to allow it to take over our thoughts and allow it to begin generating negative thoughts about ourselves, such as; you are not good enough for a relationship, or doubt God’s ability to work in your life. In this time of weakness, it is easy to begin taking matters into our own hands and maybe even seek out relationships where we should not. This is where one young man’s story begins. He loves God, yet he could not shake a feeling of yearning to be in a relationship. This young man justified seeking out a woman who was unequally yoked as himself because he told himself that he could bring her to God, and was doing the ‘right’ thing. When in fact, God had different plans for this him, and it did not include the woman he was so passionately pursuing. If you find yourself yearning or desiring for a relationship, I encourage you to listen to this testimony:

“A few months ago I was thinking about my justification with wanting to date a young woman who was not necessarily who God wanted me to date, but who I wanted to date. I felt that by being with her I could potentially be a Godly influence that she so desperately needed in her life. I felt like maybe God wanted me to be there for her. When I was with this young woman, it never truly felt right though, it didn’t feel clean. I had recently been reading a book called ‘Good or God’, and in this book it encouraged you to pray about things in your life and just bluntly ask God if they are of Him. Being with this woman was what I thought was right, but something felt off, so one day I got down on my knees and I said, ‘God I think this is why you would want me to have feelings for her and want to be with her, but if I’m wrong just take all of that from me. Remove all of my feelings for her that are not of you’. When I ended my prayer it was as if I had blinked and the feelings for this woman had disappeared. I no longer felt a yearning to be with her, my eyes where opened to the will of God and I no longer was looking at this young woman with fleshly or worldly perspective but with a perspective given to me from God. I knew then that I had just been justifying my feelings, and it was not of God. After I prayed I had no desires to be with that woman, the feelings that I had once felt so strongly towards her, gone, in an instant. God answers prayers.”

If you have been struggling with relationships, or you are unsure if you should be pursuing someone, I encourage you to ask God if this is His will. It is very difficult sometimes to separate our wants, from what God wants for us.