Purity...

What do you think of when you hear the word Purity?

For me, it was the one area of my life I knew I was not living the way God wanted me to.  At the time I was a single mother and believed the only way life would be okay was if I had a man in my life to provide, protect and love me and my daughter.  What I also believed was the only way this would ever happen was if I was intimate with a man before marriage.  Because I believed sex was love.

Now don't get me wrong, I was always known by others and teased as the "good girl", but that didn't mean I didn't put myself into situations that God wanted to protect me from because of this lie I was believing.  I still believed I had to dress for sex in order to be noticed, and willing to do more than I really wanted to with a man in order for him to ever love and want to marry me.

However, one day all that changed! I had decided to go on a "honeymoon with God", deciding to put God first in my life as the man in my life.  So I went alone to camp for the weekend to spend time with just me and God.  While I was there God taught me many things about myself and about the love He had for me including that in my Purity was His strength.  When I first heard God say this I was shocked, but over time I began to understand that being willing to stand pure in the choices I made with men and not choosing to believe that sex was love, but God was love, my perspective changed.

Now this didn't come easily for me, and I have to admit I literally yelled at God in disbelief.  I didn't believe a man would actually want to wait to have sex with me, nor want to wait to kiss me before I got married as well.  I still believed there was not a man on this earth that would wait to kiss me, and that this meant I would never get married.

Now was God really asking me to give Him my first kiss, and live a life of purity to only set me up to "fail" by never getting married?  The answer of course is no.  God was asking me to trust Him with this area of my life so He could give me something better than I had ever imagined or even believed existed.  A love that was selfless, kind and willing to wait!

So I began to choose purity for myself, and for me it looked like NOT doing the things I thought I needed to do before in order to be loved.  This included not dressing for sex, not drinking, and not going over to guys houses anymore.  By choosing to NOT do these things anymore, I was choosing to give up the only ways I had been taught to "catch a man".  I was choosing to now let God be in charge of whether or not a man would even come along, and above all else, I put God first in my life and NOT a man!

It was not long after finally surrendering to a life of purity God brought into my life examples of people who had chosen to also live a similar life of purity themselves.  And then soon after, God introduced me to my husband Travis, whom I did not "see" until God had healed my heart through his friendship and love.

Now I know everyone's story is different, and I know not everyone is called to give up kissing until they are married.  Nor am I saying that anyone should.  I am here to ask instead, what is God asking you to give up in your life to be loved the way you are searching for.  God has the answer for us all, and no matter what it looks like, we all are called to a life of purity!  Meaning we are all called to live a life of purity the way God asks us to so we can have the love He designed for us.  

So what is it in your life?  Is is drinking, smoking, having sex outside of marriage, looking at porn, eating unhealthy, watching or listening to things that do not bring life into your life?...  The list is endless, because it is specific to you and your walk with God.  What area of your life are you not living with purity before God?  What is He speaking to YOU about?  Whatever it is, I would encourage you to surrender that area of your life over to God and choose instead a life of purity.  Because by doing so you will finally receive the life God has designed you for!

Be encouraged friend, you can do this!!!

If you want to read more about how God changed my life through choosing purity, please order my book Pursued with Relentless Love on Amazon today!