Why are you still single? Answers we wish we could give.

[blue_ladybug]

To the topic at hand: "Oh I tried to find a date, but none of them could pass the challenges. My family is really traditional you know. Everyone I've tried to date has never made it past the scorpion challenge. Which is a bit disappointing... do you know how hard it is to get 2,000 scorpions in Tennessee?"

This looks to be about 2000 scorpions..lol

 

[JesusLives]

Let me bring you back down to earth. A great many people earnestly trusted in the Lord for the desires of their heart throughout the millennia of human history and never received what they desired. In fact, a good number of them were instead persecuted and martyred.

So what happens when your formula doesn't work for everyone? Do you just blow off the ones it didn't work for and bull forward happy that you got yours leaving a number of disappointed people in your wake?

Oh that's right, you'll tell them to keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting, until they die of old age and join the enormous number of people throughout history that died waiting to receive "the desires of their heart" after trusting God for them and never received the promised spouse, the mountain of gold, the kingdom to rule, or whatever else "their heart desires."

The problem with turning scriptures into old wives tales is that it causes some people to lose their faith in God when the promised result from the old wives tale doesn't pan out.

But the old wives tales are self-replicating because they always pan out for some (a function of probability) which makes sure they are replicated to the next generation by the self-absorbed people that put their faith in the old wives tale because, after all, it worked for them.

Human beings have a great many desires both good and bad which are NOT God-given.

Now Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord;
 And He will give you the desires of your heart.”

It would be easy to look at this verse by itself and conclude that if you’re a true Christian and delight yourself in the Lord, God will give you whatever you want. After all, the verse does say that if we delight in him, he will give us the desires of our heart... right?

Think about the many underpaid (or severely persecuted) Christians who delighted themselves in the Lord and faithfully served Him despite difficult circumstances that grew old never receiving what they earnestly desired in the way of more income to better raise their family. Many a pastor's son or daughter was lost to the world because they didn't want to continue in the poverty of their godly parents. e

Think about all of the wonderful Christian people who died of diseases at young ages who earnestly desired things in life they were never able to receive in this life. Think about the enormous number of Christians who were persecuted and killed throughout the centuries because of their beliefs who earnestly desire from their heart to simply have a normal life.

If you want a specific case example related to the topic, look no farther than the life of Corrie Ten boom. She earnestly desired to be married while continually delighting herself in the Lord and trusting Him for all things. It never happened. She died unmarried.

The list of people who delighted themselves in the Lord and trusted Him explicitly that didn't get everything they wanted includes Jesus Christ, and Paul the apostle... lol.

When Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord; 
And He will give you the desires of your heart,” it is not saying God is going to give you a spouse, a castle, and a fairy godmother.

Psalm 37:4 must be understood contextually not as it were meant to stand alone. As a whole, Psalm 37 tells us that if we love God and are faithful to God with our life, He will reward us in due time—not necessarily with earthly rewards, but definitely with heavenly ones. That's what Corrie discovered and so have a great many Christians who never got their hearts desires in this life despite trusting God and delighting themselves in Him.

We're all glad you're happy that you got yours but don't put your faith in old wives tales (even when they are fabricated from misunderstandings of scripture) and make promises to other people that you can't possibly deliver and God may never deliver because it does injure the Christian walk of some who don't get their hearts desires in this life.

Gain wisdom and try to put yourself in their shoes. What if it never happened for you in this life or did but came out terribly wrong. Some experience exactly that. Talk with you later. Peace.

I am truly not trying to be mean here but, What is with the Debbie Downer Speech? We humans also have a part to play in what happens to us.... One of my favorite sayings is Choice not Chance Determines Destiny. Sure our first order of business is to pray and ask God for the desires of our hearts. As it is written you have not because you do not ask.

As humans in order to make life work for us we do have to make choices and sometimes go out on a limb beyond our comfort zone and take some chances. I went out on a limb with tourist and took a big chance by giving him my phone number and he didn't even call right away, but my taking a risk opened the door to communication between the two of us and with God's help from all the prayers tourist had said we have ended up as an engaged couple.

These chances we take are not only in relationships but I have had it work in seeking a good job where you pray and search and you have to take the steps to get the job and take risks and sell yourself to the company and with the combination of prayer and human efforts I was able to land a job that God wanted me to have.

Life on this earth is always going to be accept God first and put Him first in our lives and human choices/effort/works. Our choices with God's blessings will help us reach our ultimate destiny which is reconciliation with Him. We have to work together with God for all our lives and with the salvation that Jesus has given us our destinies are secure.

 

[JesusLives]

Yup. As soon as I saw tourist say this, I just knew someone would take the bait. I had a bet with myself as to how long it would take. I won. But I also lost cause the bet was with myself. Oh well.

That's o.k. I had something to say about it....and man even before my coffee the natives are still restless only they got me to pick up my arrow and bow today....and before my coffee I am not even awake yet....come on people I'm a Blond at least let me wake up before I have to go into battle....lol Going to make my coffee now......

 

[JesusLives]

Throughout human history, including since the arrival and departure of Jesus Christ our Lord, some have lived and died single and unmarried. For them, God's timing is never.

AND, a great many Christians were just like you once and are now divorced. In some cases, their spouses cheated on them. They never saw it coming.

But I guess that wasn't "God's timing" for them; however, it simply must be "God's timing" for you because you presently feel good emotionally about it (exactly like they used to)... lol.

When you project your own emotional state and present situation (as you understand it which could be wildly wrong... she could be dating someone else right now and keeping it to herself and it would be wholly legitimate as you two are not married), upon all of humanity as a universal principle and it's in reality NOT, then that's ridiculous.

It could all blow up in your face before it's over which happens every day to genuine Christians all over the world. Or not. But that's the point.

Well aren't you just a merry ray of sunshine this morning?

 

[Lynx]

Well he did warn us he would... er, I mean he did say he would be back to talk with us later. Keep your arrows at hand.

 

[JesusLives]

To the topic at hand: "Oh I tried to find a date, but none of them could pass the challenges. My family is really traditional you know. Everyone I've tried to date has never made it past the scorpion challenge. Which is a bit disappointing... do you know how hard it is to get 2,000 scorpions in Tennessee?"

Lynx who knew that's a lot of dates....2000 and still you didn't find one to purr up to?

 

[tourist]

Well aren't you just a merry ray of sunshine this morning?

Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.

 

[Inu]

Well he did warn us he would... er, I mean he did say he would be back to talk with us later. Keep your arrows at hand.

More like keep your shotguns loaded....

 

[Lynx]

Lynx who knew that's a lot of dates....2000 and still you didn't find one to purr up to?

I can't figure out if you're saying I dated scorpions or calling the girls I dated scorpion-like... Either way, I've never been on a date yet so . Much less 2,000 of them.

blue_ladybug's scorpion pic makes my skin crawl though...

 

[JesusLives]

Coffee is brewing and I should be raring to go here shortly.... Oh this coffee is so good......O.K. now bring it on......lol

 

[tourist]

Let me bring you back down to earth. A great many people earnestly trusted in the Lord for the desires of their heart throughout the millennia of human history and never received what they desired. In fact, a good number of them were instead persecuted and martyred.

So what happens when your formula doesn't work for everyone? Do you just blow off the ones it didn't work for and bull forward happy that you got yours leaving a number of disappointed people in your wake?

Oh that's right, you'll tell them to keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting, until they die of old age and join the enormous number of people throughout history that died waiting to receive "the desires of their heart" after trusting God for them and never received the promised spouse, the mountain of gold, the kingdom to rule, or whatever else "their heart desires."

The problem with turning scriptures into old wives tales is that it causes some people to lose their faith in God when the promised result from the old wives tale doesn't pan out.

But the old wives tales are self-replicating because they always pan out for some (a function of probability) which makes sure they are replicated to the next generation by the self-absorbed people that put their faith in the old wives tale because, after all, it worked for them.

Human beings have a great many desires both good and bad which are NOT God-given.

Now Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord;
 And He will give you the desires of your heart.”

It would be easy to look at this verse by itself and conclude that if you’re a true Christian and delight yourself in the Lord, God will give you whatever you want. After all, the verse does say that if we delight in him, he will give us the desires of our heart... right?

Think about the many underpaid (or severely persecuted) Christians who delighted themselves in the Lord and faithfully served Him despite difficult circumstances that grew old never receiving what they earnestly desired in the way of more income to better raise their family. Many a pastor's son or daughter was lost to the world because they didn't want to continue in the poverty of their godly parents. e

Think about all of the wonderful Christian people who died of diseases at young ages who earnestly desired things in life they were never able to receive in this life. Think about the enormous number of Christians who were persecuted and killed throughout the centuries because of their beliefs who earnestly desire from their heart to simply have a normal life.

If you want a specific case example related to the topic, look no farther than the life of Corrie Ten boom. She earnestly desired to be married while continually delighting herself in the Lord and trusting Him for all things. It never happened. She died unmarried.

The list of people who delighted themselves in the Lord and trusted Him explicitly that didn't get everything they wanted includes Jesus Christ, and Paul the apostle... lol.

When Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord; 
And He will give you the desires of your heart,” it is not saying God is going to give you a spouse, a castle, and a fairy godmother.

Psalm 37:4 must be understood contextually not as it were meant to stand alone. As a whole, Psalm 37 tells us that if we love God and are faithful to God with our life, He will reward us in due time—not necessarily with earthly rewards, but definitely with heavenly ones. That's what Corrie discovered and so have a great many Christians who never got their hearts desires in this life despite trusting God and delighting themselves in Him.

We're all glad you're happy that you got yours but don't put your faith in old wives tales (even when they are fabricated from misunderstandings of scripture) and make promises to other people that you can't possibly deliver and God may never deliver because it does injure the Christian walk of some who don't get their hearts desires in this life.

Gain wisdom and try to put yourself in their shoes. What if it never happened for you in this life or did but came out terribly wrong. Some experience exactly that. Talk with you later. Peace.

If you pray for your heart's desire and do not get it in this life you will get it in heaven. By your logic it makes no sense to pray for anything. Faith is the hope of evidence in the unseen. God hears and answers all prayers. Some do not make it to the promise land during their walk on earth but they will eventually enter it.

 

[JesusLives]

I can't figure out if you're saying I dated scorpions or calling the girls I dated scorpion-like... Either way, I've never been on a date yet so . Much less 2,000 of them.

blue_ladybug's scorpion pic makes my skin crawl though...

You are the one who said they (I thought meaning girls/dates did not pass the scorpion test) and you were disappointed...led me to believe you had dated a few....my bad.....

 

[tourist]

Coffee is brewing and I should be raring to go here shortly.... Oh this coffee is so good......O.K. now bring it on......lol

I'm still drinking the coffee that was left over from last night. Can you brew me a cup of yours?

 

[JesusLives]

I'm still drinking the coffee that was left over from last night. Can you brew me a cup of yours?

Oh yuck....hand me your cup and I will pour it for you.....cream?.....sugar?.......smooch

 

[tourist]

Oh yuck....hand me your cup and I will pour it for you.....cream?.....sugar?.......smooch

Normally I drink it black, mainly because I am too lazy to put anything extra in it. Yes, cream & sugar...please. Oh yeah...

 

[JesusLives]

Normally I drink it black, mainly because I am too lazy to put anything extra in it. Yes, cream & sugar...please. Oh yeah...

I got your back Honey.

 

[Lynx]

Oh yuck....hand me your cup and I will pour it for you.....cream?.....sugar?.......smooch

Reminds me of an old joke.
"One cup of coffee, coming up. Cream? Sugar?" "Thank you darling." (Assuming the "Sugar" was a name, not asking if the recipient wanted sweetener in his coffee.)

 

[Inu]

Normally I drink it black, mainly because I am too lazy to put anything extra in it. Yes, cream & sugar...please. Oh yeah...

Guys..... ssshhhhhh..... you're going to awaken the sleeping giant with all your innocent flirting and happy coffee moments....

 

[tourist]

Reminds me of an old joke.
"One cup of coffee, coming up. Cream? Sugar?" "Thank you darling." (Assuming the "Sugar" was a name, not asking if the recipient wanted sweetener in his coffee.)

You have good material and your delivery is smooth. Why are you still single?

 

[Lynx]

You have good material and your delivery is smooth. Why are you still single?

How dare you try to get the thread back on track?! Shame on you! And you call yourself a derailer.