So, it’s been a while since my last blog post and I apologize. I went on vacation for a couple of weeks, but otherwise I have no excuse. However, I’ve still been in the word and I hope that you all have as well.

If there is one thing that I’ve really learned over the past few years, it’s that if you aren’t in the word regularly, then you can’t possibly know who you are truly meant to be in God’s eyes. In the past few months I’ve had several friends who have had to deal with something that most single Christians dread talking about. So, today I’m going to come out and talk about it. Today I’m going to talk about purity.

We all know that we live in a society that values many things. Money. Beauty. Power. But there is one thing that is definitely NOT even on the priority list and that is purity. We live in a sexually charged society that doesn’t place much value on those of us who have chosen to abstain from sex until we get married. I’ve seen reports that approximately 88% of single non- Christians report being sexually active, while 80% of single Christians under the age of 30 had reported being sexually active. I am by no means judging either of these groups, I’m merely using this as an example about why it can be so hard for those of us who are trying to remain “pure” until marriage.

Over the past few months I’ve had friends who have been sexually active in the past who are dealing with current temptations tied to the idea of a sexual relationship. I’ve had friends who have had to deal with the outcome of entering into a premarital sexual relationship and I’ve had friends who’ve had to deal with the repercussions of refusing to have premarital sex. This is the one that I’m going to discuss in more detail today.

My friend was interested in dating a guy that she was introduced to by a mutual friend. He said that he was a believer, but did not attend church as regularly as she does. They had talked via text messages a few times and then he invited her to “Netflix and chill” (if you don’t know what that means, Google it- I can tell you that it does not mean watch Netflix and eat popcorn while sitting nicely on the couch). When she explained to him that she was not into that kind of thing and that she was saving herself for marriage, he got mad and ended up ghosting her.

As if dating wasn’t hard enough without adding sex into the equation! It’s hard enough to find a guy in the regular every day world, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find one at church as well. Luckily my friend has been blessed with good self esteem and firm foundation in Christ, so she did not take this interaction as an assault to who she is as a person and did not allow that experience to taint her identity. She knew who she was… a beloved daughter of God, who has been saved by God grace. She knows that she is destined for God’s best, not the world’s worst. She knows that she doesn’t need to compromise her beliefs in order to find a guy and that God will provide her with the RIGHT guy in the future when He deems it to be the right time. Without her faith and knowledge of who the bible says God is, she may have easily fallen victim to the lies that satan may have told her she is. The lies that say we are “unwanted,” “unloved,” “ugly,” or whatever it is that happens to be your particular vice.

Romans 1:25 states “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator- who is forever praised.” If we don’t remind ourselves daily about who God is and what He promises, we can easily exchange God’s truth for the lies that satan and society feed us. The lies that we need to be sexually active in order to feel loved and beautiful. That we need to be intimate with our significant other in order to show them that we love them. That we have no other purpose on this planet than to give ourselves to someone else because that’s “what we’re supposed to do.” If we’re not vigilant to believe God’s promises that He wants the best for us and that He is the ultimate love, then we may allow the idea of a sexual relationship to seem like the answer to those longing feelings we have inside. Sex, essentially, allows another person to take precedence over God because you give in to what the other person says/ wants rather than what God has told you is the truth (to remain pure until marriage).

Deuteronomy 33:12 says “Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders.” God rests us between his shoulders and shields us from satan’s grasp of death through Jesus’s sacrifice. We are all God’s beloved children, so we can all rest secure, knowing that he is our protector, our hope, and the truest of true love. You know, the kind of true love that we all dream about. Forget Prince Charming, I’ll take Jesus!

If you’ve ever been made to feel like less of a person because you are not sexually active or that you’ll never be loved because you have refused to be sexually active or that you need to have sex (and maybe have even done so in the past) in order to have value or be loved, please know that these are all lies created to make you question if God’s promises are real. They are lies made to put a wall between you and the one who truly loves you more than you could ever possibly fathom. So don’t allow sex to rule your life. Allow God to rule over your life and lavish His true, pure love upon you, His beloved child.