Purity Challenge - Week 1

Hey everybody! Lexi at Choosing to Wait has a neat-o challenge for the month of February: a purity challenge! All her posts for this month will be focused on purity - but she doesn't want it to be just her! She challenges all of us to post about why waiting for our future spouse is important to us. I encourage you guys to check out her blog and even join the challenge! (If you're interested, check out the challenge rules first.) Anyway, here's my first post....


Getting married. Isn't that what every girl dreams about? That handsome prince who will gallantly ride up and sweep you off your feet =), someone who will love and cherish you--and even risk their life for you! Dreaming about our future husbands can be exciting, but it's important that these are not the thoughts that consume our minds. Marriage is a special gift that God blesses some people with, but to others He gives the gift of singleness. Whichever situation you find yourself in, God wants us to keep focused Him.


1 Corinthians 7:25-28 (ESV)
So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.

Now concerning the betrothed, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that.

Paul is saying here that marriage is not a sin, but his personal opinion is that a person can better be focused on the things of God as single person, than a married one. When reading this passage, though, we must keep in mind the Corinthian culture. Corinth was a city where the Christians were persecuted for their faith. It was hard enough just being a Christian, but having a marriage partner would be even harder! You'd have another person to care for, provide for, and worry about. Your attention is divided.

Now, of course, things are different than the Corinthian society, but we can still apply Paul's main point to our lives: we should be devoted to the Lord right now. "Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called," is Paul's instruction is 1 Corinthian 7:20.

Looking forward to marriage is not bad! But we (as young singles) shouldn't be looking for or seeking out attention from the opposite sex. Boyfriends/girlfriends and "crushes" aren't things we should be thinking about. God wants us to be content with where we are right now. One of my small group leaders gave an awesome illustration of this, and so I drew a couple simple pictures to help illustrate it.

In our life, we should be solely focused on Christ, running with all our might toward the cross. We let go of every distraction and burden and let Jesus become our only passion. Our eyes are fixed on Him.


But as we're running, out of our peripheral vision, we see someone else running straight for the cross too...

God designed marriage and blesses many people with this gift. If this is the plan God has for me, then I want Him to be the initiator of it. Instead of constantly dreaming about when I'll get married and who it might be, I want to stay focused on God. I will be waiting. I won't be chasing other guys. I won't be giving my heart away. I am choosing to wait because I want to honor the Lord and a future husband God might bring me. My mind and body is not my own, and I my Savior to be honored with it. And someday He might bring me someone else who is focused on God too, and we can run the race together. Until then, I'll be focused on the cross, running toward Christ.