Whether or not Q is real, whether or not the military will save us, it cannot change your actions today. You have control over what you control, and no control over what you cannot control. You will be held to account to God for how you decide to act within the realms where you have power to act. Thus, you must focus exclusively on what you can do and should do, and how best to execute on it.
At the top of the priority list should always be your devotion to God. God demands we worship him and him alone. This means you must study out who God is and how to properly worship him. This is not for the faint of heart -- even studying and practicing for a lifetime is not enough to understand what this means. Every thought must be directed to him. Every prayer to him. Every action to him. Every offering to him.
From here, all things branch out. The Two Great Commandments, available both in the Old and New Testaments, is to "Love God" and "Love your neighbor". How to love God? With all your heart, might, mind and strength. How to love your neighbor? As yourself. What does love mean? We in modern society think of love as a feeling, but it is an action, and act, something you do and not feel.
The Ten Commandments branch from these, and cover the most basic elements of proper actions. It is clear from these commandments that God values honesty, fidelity in marriage, family life, and property ownership. Of course, we can go through the Old and New Testaments and find multiple explicit commandments or punishments for disobedience. Again, a lifetime of study is not enough time to learn how to act rightly before God.
Let's bring this home to our modern times and our modern understanding.
- Get married, stay married, and practice sexual activity only in marriage. Any extra-marital sexual act is forbidden. That means no porn, no adultery, no pre-marital sex. No divorce! But on a higher level, this is a devotion to family life. No greater happiness exists than fulfilling your duty in your family. And the reverse, No greater sadness exists than failing your duty in your family. Bear lots of children, more than you can handle. No one ever said, "I wish I didn't have so many kids!" Spend all of your efforts teaching and raising your kids. No physical treasure compares to well-raised kids.
- Get rich. This isn't optional. How do you get rich? Write a budget. Spend less than you earn. Earn more. Build an emergency fund. Get out of debt. Acquire investments assets -- real estate being a major one. Become truly self-sufficient with a garden and animals you raise and eat. Dave Ramsay has a lot of advice on how to get rich and how to behave as a rich person.
- Get educated. The idea that the purpose of education is to learn "practical skills" is absurd. Real education is about developing the proper and right character and attributes. Real education starts with the Bible and a whole lot of time praying and seeking truth. Of course you are going to incorporate other methods and materials.
- Get strong. "Physical strength is the most important thing in life" as Rippetoe says. It doesn't matter what you have if you are physically incompetent and require a wheelchair or medicine just to cope with life. People bound to wheelchairs and who require medicine just to live know what a great gift it is to have a body that works -- so keep your body in the best physical condition you can get it!
When we have enough people living rightly, with strong families, personal and familial real wealth, and a true and real education, physically fit, then we can talk about become self-governing. Until that point, however, we are far to weak in one way or the other to matter, and easily manipulated or controlled.
The first goal is to learn to govern yourself, then to govern your family, then to govern your community and finally your nation. If you cannot govern yourself, you cannot govern your family. And so on.
Love is an action and a decision you make, not a feeling. Here is God's definition of love:
Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
If you read that, you can clearly see that these things are all actions. This is the biggest lie that has been perpetuated in our culture. Loving feelings an ebb and flow depending on life circumstances, but those feelings are temporary. My love for my husband is permanent because I try my hardest to be patient and kind with him. I put his needs above my own. I don't provoke him to anger. I try really hard not to keep accounts of wrongs suffered (this one is hard lol), etc.
This is why it's so important to choose the right partner BEFORE you get married. Choose someone with the same values and beliefs on marriage, love, and commitment. My husband views love in the exact same way that I do, so even during the hard times, we still try our hardest to love one another (through actions). And the beautiful thing is that the loving feelings ALWAYS come back. We work things through, communicate, and come up with solutions and compromises to our problems and things come back around. And when one of us screws up, we apologize and forgive each other instead of holding things over each other.
So I guess to summarize, I don't believe there are only 2 courses of actions as you stated in your comment:
Stay together and be miserable or Leave and be happy apart
And what do you do when there are problems in your new relationship? All relationships face hard times. Every single one. If you don't stay and fight in the first one, why would you stay and fight in the next one???
Again, this is not for extreme cases like domestic violence or adultery.
Actually, that's Paul's definition, and while it's important to grasp how God speaks to us through his word, through his instruments, like Paul, it's still Paul, and Paul isn't God. IMO.
Just saying.
My marriage was full of difficult, painful challenges for both my wife and myself. We stuck together because of our dedication to God, and his Blessing on our marriage. At least, I did, and I think my wife too.
It was only after 20 years of lots of hard work, trial, tribulation, and perseverance, that we came upon what could only be described as the Oasis in the desert. And the reward of our marriage is greater than anything I really imagined. I'm so grateful now for my wife, and for our marriage. My conclusion: it's ONLY by working on the marriage, and yourself, that true happiness comes. People rarely understand the blessing God has prepared for them because they become overwhelmed with the difficulty, and end up turning away, from God and themselves.
Despite my own theological quibble above (Paul), I really liked your comment.
well stated.
I believe the Bible is the inspired word of God, so while Paul physically wrote those words, I truly believe they came directly from God. I do understand what you mean and of course you're welcome to your own theological interpretation.
I am so happy for you and your wife! It is so beautiful to hear stories of hard work and perseverance leading to beautiful blessings. And you are completely correct, most people don't want to put the work in. It makes me really sad. I am so thankful for the beautiful marriage I have with my husband, but we have built it through being intentional with each other and really working on our communication and compromising. I feel like things are soooo much easier now because we took the time and put in so much effort in our first few years. We don't have to work nearly as much, now, because we have settled so many issues and come up with solutions to them. And while we still get into a funk now and then or have an argument, we resolve it so much quicker just because we know each other so much better.
I just think it's so sad that people are constantly looking for something better instead of working on improving what they already have. And you're so right that people run from God. God has helped us in our relationship so much. I can see such a difference when we are both praying and seeking God and asking Him to help us in our marriage. May God continue to bless you and your wife. Thank you so much for sharing <3
BTW, I can also accept the view that the words of Paul came directly from God. I mean, that's how it is with an instrument. On the other hand, I also think that God speaks and shares through other words too, so I guess I'm saying that this particular passage is not the only view of God; God expresses different aspects of His nature through different instruments and people, etc.
But that's belaboring the point, and beside the point, in the end; I think we can both agree, God certainly spoke to us there!
BTW, both my wife and myself became engaged on 'God's recommendation' - that is, we were introduced via our pastor who prayed and was guided. For me, my motive in getting married was really to receive that blessing from my Father, and to strive for it to be fulfilling for Him. That lead to frustrations along the way, and I thought my frustrations were justified, became I'm trying to do this for God. After a while it clicked in - wow. This is really about me being put in a relationship that forces me to grow, challenge and restore / fix myself through his Grace.
Conclusion: a true marriage is a 3-way deal. It's a husband and wife centering on God, and making God the center of the relationship. In our union, God experiences the most profound joy a father can (despite our shortcomings)
You too, KB.
That's awesome! Wow! What a beautiful and amazing way y'all were brought together.
My husband's sister introduced my husband and I. We were having a sleepover. I was laying in her bed and saying how much I wanted to get married. Out of the blue, she said, "Huh, I think you would be good for my brother." She ended up setting us up, and the first time we met was for the three of us to spend the day hanging out.
By the end of that day, I knew he was my husband. It's the weirdest and hardest thing to explain. I swear it was like the Holy Spirit spoke to me. I can only describe it as a deep knowing. It actually freaked me out, but I was right. And while things have not always been easy, in fact in our first ten years of marriage we have dealt with losing 3 of our parents, infertility, PTSD and some other mental health issues for him, family issues, and a lot of other really stressful and difficult situations. But God has used these things to bring us so close together. We have learned so much about each other and how to communicate better and understand one another. I feel like our marriage has been forged in fire and is now stronger than ever. I am just so thankful God brought us together, and I completely agree that making God the center of your union is crucial. <3
What I'm saying is that love is a choice and an action. It should be unconditional with your spouse. My husband is my family. I could never NOT love him. I don't understand love just disappearing like that. He is part of me. Even when we fight or are going through a hard time, my love for him transcends everything.
I just can't comprehend that ever happening. We have been married for ten years and my love has only grown deeper and my appreciation for him stronger over those years. And it has been work, but that work is so worth it.
I don't think people should stay together in a loveless marriage. I'm saying they should work on their marriage to rekindle the romance and love they had in the beginning of their marriage. You can build that trust and intimacy and those deep loving feelings again. It just takes work, but most people seem to lazy to put the effort in, and they want infatuation instead of deep meaningful love and commitment. It just makes me sad.
It's not. Infatuation is a feeling. Love is a choice and an action.
Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
The lie that is told is that love is a feeling. Feelings come and go. They change on a whim. You're happy, you're sad, you're infatuated, then you're not. True love is constant. It is a state of being. I love my husband because I choose to love him. I choose to be patient and kind to him. I choose to support him and serve him and take care of his needs. I choose to build our relationship by taking time and putting energy into our marriage. That's love. All of those actions are love. Thinking love is a feeling is shallow and it makes me sad to think about how many people don't really experience true deep meaningful love and commitment because they are too focused on the feelings of infatuation/lust and not on what real love is.