We Can Do Better Than This

You've been a mistress, My bride

Chasing lovers that won't satisfy 

Won't you let Me make you My wife?

You will drink of My lips, and you'll taste new life

These words floated into my ears just as I was doing a little blog reading. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. Do me a favor and click on that hyper link before you continue? 

Maybe a month ago, I read this article, "6 Options for Godly Single Women Wanting to Marry". I felt pretty neutral about it, to be honest. I actually thought it was kind of funny. I was neither encouraged nor discouraged, and paid it no attention. 

And then back to today. I listened to that precious song, "Beloved" by Tenth Avenue North and I read this response, "Godly Single Ladies: You Can Do Better Than This"and I've decided that in this debate, all I agree with is the title. 

We can do better than this, and so can single men and married men and women and all those kids who are in between childhood and adulthood; every single Christian can do better than this. We can do better than numbered to-do lists and comment wars and open letters. We can do better than making marriage the end goal and pursuing just to pursue and pining to be pursued. 

We can do better than this, because Christ is much, much better than this. 

And this is why, friends, I'm proposing a zero option. I'm not adding to your list, because who really needs another thing to do? 

In fact, I'm asking you to stop. 

Stop letting our social media culture tell you how to live your life and how to feel about it. Stop letting yourself be defined by the ring (or lack of it) on your finger. 

And stop, just for a minute, and look at Jesus. 

Can you turn both eyes to Jesus and tell me that He is not enough? 

Saturday night, I read John in one sitting. I was so thirsty that I just sat and learned what it means to drink and drink and drink from the Living Water. I heard Jesus tell me who He is - the Light of the World, the Bread of Life, the Living Water, One with the Father. And I heard Him say 

for the Father Himself loves you because you have loved Me and have believed that I come from God...And this is eternal life, that they know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 16:27, 17:3 

I flipped backwards to some of my favorite pages, the Hosea pages. I see God's faithfulness redeeming my faithlessness. 

For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink'...She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then now. And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. Hosea 2:5, 7-8

Don't you see us, church? Because when we make a list of 7 ways to whatever, I see 7 lovers we're going after while the Author and Finisher of our faith is the One supplying what we seek. 

And what is His response to us?

Therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me My Husband and no longer will you call me My Baal. For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more...And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord. Hosea 2:14-17, 19-20

I don't need six choices or sixteen or six hundred. My God told me I would know Him and forget all my other lusts and pursuits and wanderings. And in Christ, He is making all things new. The work He began will be brought to completion. These are promises that you can take to the bank, because when God says yes, the answer is never no. 

For Jesus my soul longs, and I sing with the saints before me

When He shall come with trumpet sound

Oh may I then in Him be found 

Dressed in His righteousness alone

Faultless stand before the throne 

On Christ the Solid Rock I stand 

All other ground is sinking sand

All other ground in sinking sand 

Thank You, Jesus, for doing so much better than us.