As a sequel to our previous discussion, there is a need for us to acknowledge that one of the most important decisions anyone would make in life as a man or woman after Salvation is the decision of who to choose as a life partner. This is one of the most important decisions alongside the decision to accept Christ Jesus and the decision to discover Purpose (Acts 9:1-6). We do not get to choose the Family into which we are born or our country of origin, but the Lord God Almighty permits us to make this very important life altering and permanent decision for He gave man the gift of freewill in order to make his own choices in life. This decision is one of the several decisions that He allows us to make. The Holy Scriptures clearly state thus in our Key Scriptural Text: "He who finds a wife finds a good thing..." (Prov. 18:22). This Bible verse points out that it is the person who finds and chooses the spouse rather than God Almighty Himself. As True Christian believers, we acknowledge that we can not successfully find or choose a partner without the Help and Leading of God. Nevertheless, God Himself placed the Responsibility of choosing on us and not on Him. This is because He has laid down for us Basic Principles to guide us, some of which we studied previously, hence He expects us to apply them and therefore succeed in our search for our life partners.
God Himself does not force a man or woman upon anybody but rather He gave us the freewill to make that decision. However, as children of God who have been called according to His Purpose, we can not make such life decisions independent of God's Principles. Because of the life altering nature of this decision, it is not one to be made carelessly. Let us examine a few more Basic Principles involved when it comes to choosing a life partner as Christian Believers:
6. PRAYER: This remains the Primary Principle because nobody knows either you or your future spouse more than the One Who created them Himself: God Almighty (Jer. 1:5).
7. SEEKING GODLY COUNSEL: Apart from seeking God first of all in the Place of Prayer, we must also seek the Counsel of those Authority figures placed over us (Prov. 15:22; 16:3,9; 20:18). These include both our biological and Spiritual parents.
8. SPIRITUAL HOMOGENEITY: As a True Christian believer, you have no business looking for a life partner outside of the Christian Faith. God commanded that we must marry only "... in the Lord" (1 Cor. 7:39).
9. STAYING IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO THE WELL: It is surely not a coincidence that Isaac, Jacob and Moses all met their wives by the Well (Gen. 24:11, 29:9; Ex. 2:15). The Well represents a place of Refreshing. It also represents a Place of Rest and of Gathering. This signifies that the best place to find a life partner is in the Gathering together of God's children.
10. UNITY OF VISION: Both spouses within any Marriage Relationship must be heading in the same direction (Amos 3:3) and pursuing the same Vision otherwise chaos becomes inevitable.