“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.” 2 Timothy 3:16 NLT
Welcome to the 7th devotional recap of the year. This week we learnt about contentment in marriage and singlehood, becoming the one, honoring God with our bodies, and God’s perspective on family.
We began the week by learning about contentment in marriage. As the famous wedding vow goes, “for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health”, a happy marriage would involve making the decision to be satisfied with your spouse in every situation, every single day throughout the marriage. This might not be easy but the Bible says that God has given us everything we need for a godly life (2 Peter 1:3), so you can lean into Him for strength.
We continued the week by looking at the topic, “Complete in Him”, an exhortation on being content in singlehood. We were reminded that despite the immense pressure from social media, marriage, although good, is not our purpose in life. Our purpose is to know Christ and make Him known and we can do that while single. The single period rather than spent pining for marriage should be spent knowing oneself, growing, and in joy.
On Wednesday, we studied, “becoming the one”, where a balance was drawn between contentment and growth while being single. We learnt two ways to be the best version of ourselves while being single. The first was self-awareness which involves, being able to evaluate yourself against the standards of the Scriptures, identify areas for improvement, and take deliberate steps to do so (2 Corinthians 13:5). The second was, personal development which entails being able to improve yourself externally in areas such as dressing, speaking, and so on.
On Thursday, we looked at honoring God with our bodies. The world might have all sorts of ideologies about sex but as children of God bought with the price of His blood, our attitude to sexual immorality remains the same, we flee! Our bodies are the temple of God (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) and we must honor Him with it (Romans 12:1).
We rounded up the week with a teaching on God’s ideal family. The family is the cell of society and God designed it to be a place that reflects His unconditional love and also to support, protect, and provide for its members. Regardless of what pop culture says, God’s ideal family is the one where the woman submits to her husband, the man loves and respects his wife (Ephesians 5: 33), and the children honor their parents (Exodus 20:12, Ephesians 6.2).
God’s word does not leave us in doubt about His will for every aspect and phase of our lives and our relationships. We must give ourselves constantly to the reading of the Bible and to prayer so that our convictions are strengthened and we are not carried away by the falsehood around us.
Bible Reading Plan: Genesis 49-50