Last night was part 3 of Push Back: on Dating. The bottom line:

Push Back by opening your Bible and seeking to walk out relationships based on God’s Word. Push Back by honoring your parents and their desires for your relationships.

There are too many lies that are too easy to believe. Our culture is constantly pressing on us, trying to persuade us to follow its path. Trying to find satisfaction in joy in anything without God will ultimately fail:

“…you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. Augustine, Confessions, translated by Henry Chadwick, 3.

We need to get our perspectives on relationships from God’s Word…

“In the same way that hunger alone tells us nothing about eating nutritionally, our passions and urges do not teach us about loving well.” John Ensor, Doing Things Right in Matters of the Heart, 44.

Another great quote:

“Loving God first as a matter of the heart puts all our other loves in their rightful place and in their right proportion… If we do not seek our happiness in God and make him our perfect and everlasting happiness, then every good thing becomes a substitute for God; it becomes an idol.” John Ensor, Doing Things Right in Matters of the Heart, 46.

We learn a lot about how God wants us to act in Paul’s instructions to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:12:

“Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example
in speech,
in conduct,
in love,
in faith,
in purity.”

So here are five ways to glorify God and serve others in relationships.  More on each of these this week.

In the meantime, don’t forget the gospel!  If this is an area in which you have sinned, that sin is serious, but it is forgivable:

“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper,
but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” (Pr. 28:13)

Categories: Push Back