I’m often amazed how people gloss over this: Every encounter in life is a divine appointment, but not every divine appointment means God says “go with this”. Sometimes it’s an appointment to be tested, whether you’ll stand for God and say “no” to that other party. It’s always best to trust your convictions.
A good way to get acquainted with your convictions is to play over in your mind various scenarios you observe someone else handling. It doesn’t matter where you see it; this may be the only good use for TV and movies. What would you do in their place? Pray and contemplate what your conscience requires of you. Then, in the day of testing, you’ll be more likely to know, even if you realize that it’s not as you imagined. The point is, something you can never discern with your mind has taken place, and your heart will speak up at the moment. If you really want to know your convictions, and you seek God for clarity, you will most certainly find it.
Psychologically, your convictions are the sum total of what drives you to act on moral questions, typically against logic and reason. Doctrinally, your convictions are the character God wrote into your soul before you were born. You discover your convictions, as they were there all along.
There are precious few things in life for which God gives you only one shot. Sex is one of them. It’s not that I believe God has only one spouse chosen for you. That’s not in the Bible. I don’t believe Election covers marriage partners. There are surely some prospects better than others at any given them, but the issue is not who you choose but whether you obey His Word in choosing. In our current dire context, it’s mostly a question of whom you reject, as the majority of eligibles are not much of a blessing.
If your first sex partner is not a righteous choice at the time, you can never undo the defilement. It won’t necessarily destroy your life, but it will eliminate some opportunities that will never come your way again. For almost every other human encounter, if you get it wrong, God will provide another chance to get it right. I can’t count how many times I’ve experienced this.
So, if you missed it on the first round, the world for you has not ended. There is so much more He has in store for us. Happy New Year!
