Free I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris Page B

calling my name. And let me tell you, it looks good.
    Why don't I snatch it up? Why shouldn't you? Because God has promised something better. He provides something better
    82 joshua harris now as we take advantage of the unique opportunities of singleness, and He'll provide something better later when we enter into marriage. But we must have faith to believe it. Like those little children, we're left alone with something that could possibly satisfy us immediately. And we can't see the reward of delaying our gratification.
    It gets down to this question: Do you trust God? Don't just give a knee-jerk, Sunday school answer. Do you really trust Him? Do you live your life as if you trust Him? Do you believe that by
    51 passing up something good now because it's the wrong time God will bring you something better when it is the right time?
    Jim and Elisabeth Elliot faced this difficult question in their passionate relationship. They loved each other deeply, yet they placed God's will before their own desires. In Passion and Purity, Mrs. Elliot writes:
    We were being asked to trust to leave the planning to God. God's ultimate plan was as far beyond our imaginings as the oak tree is from the acorn's imaginings. The acorn does what it was made to do, without pestering its Maker with questions about when and how and why. We who have been given an intelligence and a will and a whole range of wants that can be set against the divine Pattern for Good are asked to believe Him. We are given the chance to trust Him when He says to us, ...'If any man will let himself be lost for my sake, he will find his true self."
    When mil we find it? we ask. The answer is, Trust Me. How will we find it? The answer again is, Trust Me. Why must I let myself be lost? we persist. The answer is, Look at the acorn and trust Me.
    the right thing at the wrong time... 83 god knew best
    Many people realize too late that we don't arrive at contentment as a destination as much as we develop contentment as a state of mind. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 6:6 that "godliness with contentment is great gain." And in Philippians 4:11 he writes, "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." What is Paul's secret?
    Paul shares it with us: "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (philippians 4:13). Paul trusted God to give him strength to endure any situation he faced. In the same way, we can gain contentment when we trust in God's strength and God's grace to sustain us through any circumstance. Whether you're single or married; whether you're liked, loved, or lonely; the key to contentment is trust. Believe it or not, if we are discontented with singleness, we'll more than likely face discontentment when we're married. When we define our happiness by some point in the future, it will never arrive. We'll keep waiting until tomorrow. If we allow impatience to govern us, we will miss the gift of the moment. We'll arrive at that point in time that we expected to provide fulfillment and find it lacking.
    One lady wrote to me, frustrated that people often
    52 view a single woman as just marking time until the right man comes along. "Poor single woman!" she continued. "The world wants her to fornicate, and the church wants her to marry! Whatever happened to what Paul said about the blessings of being single? William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, wrote, "Don't instill, or allow anybody else to instill into the hearts of your girls the idea that marriage is the chief end of life. If you do, don't be surprised if they get engaged to the first empty, useless fool they come across." Women (and men) should marry when it is plainly the will of God for their lives, not because they
    joshua harris "can't minister" otherwise, or because of social pressure." I can only add a hearty "Amen!" to her comments.
    Author John Fischer, speaking as a single, young adult said, "God has called me to live now, not four years from now. He wants me to realize my full