At times, try as I may, I don't understand why my life has turned out the way it has. Most days I am thankful that God saved me from what I thought I wanted for my life, much of which would have lead to destruction and misery. But there are those days when it seems I have been wronged. I think to myself "What did I do to deserve this life of solitude?" When this happens I should immediately remind myself that the Lord has been good and that He has called me to Himself and to a life that glorifies Him and that it sometimes means walking down a road alone. Unfortunately, this is not always my reaction. Some times I'm my own undoing and I begin to feed into the lie that my life is one of solitude. Much of the time these feelings come after I have been wounded by someone, the details of which may vary.
Sometimes you can see a thing and think that it looks like a duck but upon closer examination you find it is a decoy. A decoy is defined as, "a thing (or person) that lures or entices (a person or animal) away from an intended course, typically into a trap." The enemy of our souls is constantly using decoys to try to distract us from what the Lord would have for our lives. Some times the distraction comes in the form of a man that looks and (on the surface) acts like a man of God, but what looks like a duck is not always a duck and what looks like a man of God upon closer examination can be found a fraud.
I have heard that rather than studying the fraud one should study the genuine because frauds are always changing in an attempt to look more genuine but the genuine is without change. So what does a genuine man of God look like. There is no better place to look than in the Word of God, 1 Tim 3 gives a description of what an overseer (or bishop) should look like and because the man is the head of the home,as women this is what we should look for. "Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money... He must not be a recent convert... he must be well thought of by outsiders... must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience."
What does it all mean, it means that you should not settle for a man that does not respect you, or value you to the degree that he would protect your testimony and integrity even when you are struggling to. A man of God does not manipulate women into feeling that the only way to prove their affection is with physical intimacy. A man of God seeks to honor and glorify God with all he does not excluding his relationships. As women we need to learn that the the only way to know what a man of God looks like is by drawing closer to God Himself. His sons imitate who He is; by knowing the Lord more intimately we are able to recognize His sons.
Sometimes you can see a thing and think that it looks like a duck but upon closer examination you find it is a decoy. A decoy is defined as, "a thing (or person) that lures or entices (a person or animal) away from an intended course, typically into a trap." The enemy of our souls is constantly using decoys to try to distract us from what the Lord would have for our lives. Some times the distraction comes in the form of a man that looks and (on the surface) acts like a man of God, but what looks like a duck is not always a duck and what looks like a man of God upon closer examination can be found a fraud.
I have heard that rather than studying the fraud one should study the genuine because frauds are always changing in an attempt to look more genuine but the genuine is without change. So what does a genuine man of God look like. There is no better place to look than in the Word of God, 1 Tim 3 gives a description of what an overseer (or bishop) should look like and because the man is the head of the home,as women this is what we should look for. "Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money... He must not be a recent convert... he must be well thought of by outsiders... must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience."
What does it all mean, it means that you should not settle for a man that does not respect you, or value you to the degree that he would protect your testimony and integrity even when you are struggling to. A man of God does not manipulate women into feeling that the only way to prove their affection is with physical intimacy. A man of God seeks to honor and glorify God with all he does not excluding his relationships. As women we need to learn that the the only way to know what a man of God looks like is by drawing closer to God Himself. His sons imitate who He is; by knowing the Lord more intimately we are able to recognize His sons.
