Why do people want to be in a committed and healthy relationship with a special person? Most would answer this question by saying that everyone needs love and desires to feel loved. Who can argue with that? 1John 4:8(NLT) declares, “But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” Our Heavenly Father is love and everything was created through and from His love. That includes us! We’re wired to love Him, to give love, and to receive it. This sounds really simple, but we all know that in our modern society, relationships can be notoriously complicated. Many individuals are finding it very challenging to find a compatible person and to hold on to the relationship once they do.
One of the biggest contributing factors that makes it challenging to find love and hold on to it is a misconception about what it means to truly love someone. We are taught from a very early age that we can be anything we want to be, and that we are indeed the captains of our destinies. We carry this same concept into the way we love people, defining love only through our feelings and not so much through the actions and commitment that God requires in order to love His way. In truth, our destinies belong to Heavenly Father, and not to us. He sets them, and if we’re interested at all in having a quality existence, we’ll do our best to follow the path He has laid before us.
Proverbs 19:21(NLT) tells us, “You can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail.” We can’t always do anything we want, and we can’t always be anything we choose. All of us have dreams and aspirations, but if they are not in alignment with the purpose for which we’re placed on this earth, those dreams and aspirations will need to be realigned. Our purpose is ordained by God and contained within it is the very best life we could ever hope to live. His plan for our lives contains the partner that is best suited to walk with us through life. It is God’s dream that we will surrender our self-reliance and allow Him to take the lead in our lives, because He’s the One with the Master plan.
Colossians 2:10(NLT) says, “So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” Through Jesus Christ, we are completely complete, lacking no good thing. We have all the necessary components to be who God wants us to be, to have what He wants us to have, and to do what He desires us to do. We are not missing any parts because of what God has accomplished for us through Jesus Christ. The reason that so many of us never get beyond feeling like half of a whole is because we refuse to relinquish the boundaries and limitations that keep us from fully loving another individual through Christ. Self-reliance in the love department causes self-sabotage.
Again, God wants us to have the best in life. Romans 15:5 teaches us that His expectation is for us to live in complete harmony with the significant person in our lives and with others. Our own personal brand of love will not cut it. We must love through the love of Jesus Christ, and this is going to require a sacrifice that stretches us way beyond the boundaries of our comfort zone. Not only will we need to look in the mirror with blatant honesty, but we must present ourselves humbly before God and ask Him to reveal the areas in our hearts that keep His love from flowing as freely as it should.
In Deuteronomy 30:20(NLT), God presented His people living in Old Testament times with a choice. He told them, “You can make this choice by loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life.” Those living then refused to heed His words just as many of us living today do. They paid a heavy price, and so will we if we refuse to listen to God. We can and should make a different choice than those who abandoned God’s Word.
Heavenly Father is a faithful and loving God, and it is our love relationship with Him that causes us to operate out of an overflow of love. Overflowing in His love is how God wants our destiny partner to be loved, and it is the way He desires our destiny partner to love us. In and of itself, our love doesn’t have any glue, but the love of Christ has permanent stickability, and we must be patient, humble, and teachable as we commit ourselves to learn to love his way. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Half of A Whole”,written for Crazynlove.com ©2021. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!