For 15 months now James and I have been dating. We are not perfect but we certainly try to seek the Lord in all that we do. We fail and succeed daily. I feel that our relationship is healthy and God centered. But we have gone through seasons of really struggling with sexual sin as well as seasons of it not even being close to an issue of any kind. If I am going to be honest with you right here and right now, we are struggling. If you pray and you are reading this, please pray for us! We need it right here and right now. :-) Thank you.
We had a season of struggle towards the beginning of our relationship (like in the first 6 months somewhere) where we were introduced to the term/verse "burn with passion." At the time, it was just something we needed to conquer, and we did. We have now entered another season of this struggle and at 15 months we ponder... is it time for us to move forward and take the next step... and my question is "soon?" If so, what is soon? What does this look like? Are we failing God because we can't seem to keep our hand off one another? Or is this what He has in store for us? I have a friend that when talking about this topic says "Shit or get off the pot." Is this the time? Hmmm... I don't know. I know our time is soon. I know this because he, as in James, tells me it will be soon. And I trust God and in Him I can trust James and what he says. Then, there is another question to that... my definition of soon and James' definition of soon. My soon would be something like by the end of the month and his may be like "You know... Christmas is soon... like just around the corner" HAHA.... he is sitting right here reading this as I type it... so we're having a good ol laugh about now. :-) We love each other but our brains think very differently! hehe. I want to ask myself is this Satan attacking us or is this God breaking us?!? Is God trying to tell us something? Is it the same thing I quoted my friend on? :-) Either way He makes NO MISTAKES and I am okay with that. He takes care of me and will continue to take care of me. I just have to fight this battle, we have to fight this battle together and we'll make it through! I truly believe these words! So please pray for us and hold us accountable! I love you all! :-)
Here is some stuff I found as I was researching this verse:
Psalms 37:4 "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and He shall give thee the desires of your heart."
Proverbs 3:6 "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and He shall direct thy paths."
The Apostle Paul uses the word “fornication” when describing sexual sin. Fornication is defined as any sexual activity outside of marriage. The Message translates Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 6:18 “There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for "becoming one" with another.
God intended sex for two reasons: (1) procreation; and, (2) the ongoing connection of two become one flesh in marriage.
Recreational sex only serves a selfish purpose. It is not about valuing the other person as a whole person but as an object of desire.
c. If they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry: Paul’s recommendation to marry in such cases is not based on marriage being more or less spiritual, but on very practical concerns, especially relevant to his day (as explained in 1 Corinthians 7:26, 29, 32). A godly sexual relationship within the covenant of marriage is God’s plan for meeting our sexual needs.
i. Though Paul preferred the unmarried state for himself, he doesn’t want anyone to think that being married was less spiritual, or more spiritual. It is all according to an individual’s gifting. Remember that Paul told Timothy that forbidding to marry was a doctrine of demons (1 Timothy 4:1-3).
ii. Paul “was aware how powerfully a counterfeit show of purity deceives the godly.” (Calvin)
d. It is better to marry than to burn with passion: Paul recognizes marriage as a legitimate refuge from pressures of sexual immorality. One should not feel they are immature or unspiritual because they desire to get married so as to not burn with passion.
i. Paul is not speaking about what we might consider “normal” sexual temptation. “It is one thing to burn, another to feel heat . . . what Paul calls burning here, is not merely a slight sensation, but being so aflame with passion that you cannot stand up against it.” (Calvin)
ii. At the same time, if someone has a problem with lust or sexual sin, they should not think that getting married will automatically solve their problems. Many a Christian man has been grieved to find that his lust for other women did not magically “go away” when he got married.
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