Topic: Choose Your Partner Carefully [RICK WARREN Devotional 30 July 2024]
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Choose Your Partner Carefully
BY RICK WARREN — JULY 30, 2024
FROM YOU MAKE ME CRAZY
“The righteous choose their friends carefully.”
Proverbs 12:26 (NIV)
If you’re supposed to choose your friends carefully, you should be even more careful about choosing your life partner. And notice that you do get to choose. God leads, guides, and gives you guidelines. But ultimately, who you marry—and whether you marry—is your choice.
However, many people believe the myth that there is only one right person for them.
That’s romantic, but it’s just not true. It’s not biblical, and it’s not even logical! If there were only one right person for each person in the world, one person making a wrong decision would break the chain for everybody else.
Let’s say I’m supposed to marry a woman named Susan. Instead, I marry Kay. So then, Susan might marry somebody else, who was supposed to marry somebody else, who was supposed to marry another person! Do you see how the apple cart is upset for everyone on the entire planet?
There are many people God would want you not to marry. But there likely are quite a few other options that could fall within his will for your life. And in those cases, it’s your choice. You can follow your preference.
There’s another myth that many people believe: Love alone is reason enough to marry.
I frequently talk with people who are planning to get married. And sometimes I look at them and think, “There’s no way.” The family background, spiritual foundation, or personalities aren’t right. They don’t have the same amount of energy or ambition. They don’t even have the same values and goals. But they “love each other.”
Loving someone does not mean you should marry that person.
God may not tell you who to marry. But he does give you principles that will help you make a wise decision. In tomorrow’s Daily Hope devotional, we’ll go over a list of traits to look for in potential partners.
But first and foremost, if you’re a believer, it’s foundational that you marry another believer so that you have a spiritual unity and a shared life purpose.
There are few gifts in life that are better than a good spouse. Relying on God’s guidance can help you make a wise decision.
Talk It Over
- Have you believed the myth that there’s only one right potential life partner for each of us? How does it make you feel to know God gives people a choice?
- When have you seen friends or family marry just for love when they really weren’t compatible? What have you learned from them?
- When have you seen friends or family wisely choose a life partner? What have you learned from them?
Will you follow Jesus today?
God proved his goodness through his Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible says, “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 CSB).
Are you ready to trust God to fulfill his promise of eternal life through Jesus? If so, start with this simple prayer: “Dear God, I confess I’ve lived life my own way and sinned against you. I ask for your forgiveness. I believe that Jesus Christ is your Son, that he died to take away my sins and that you raised him to life. I want to trust Jesus as my Savior and follow him as Lord from this day forward. Guide my life and help me to do your will. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”
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