Unequally yoked
A while back, God put it on my heart to write about this topic. Phew…I thought, that’s quite a thing. Of course, I write all my blogs from my own experiences, my own pitfalls and victories together with God, and so it is often personal stuff that I share with you, and I have no problem with that at all, all for the honor and glory of His Name, even if I have to “bare my buttocks,” as we sometimes say in the Netherlands. But this topic…I had to swallow it for a moment. It’s quite sensitive, and I don’t want to judge people who might be in a similar situation right now. But God’s Word is truth, and the truth will set you free (John 8:32). /*! elementor – v3.22.0 – 26-06-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:32 Yet, I have taken some time in prayer and even in fasting to determine whether this is really what God is asking of me and how I am going to put things into words. Because it is a difficult and sensitive subject, it will also be a somewhat longer blog than you are used to from me so far, so grab a cappuccino, take seat 😉…,and let me just start at the beginning. Before I made the choice to follow Jesus, I was in a relationship. Both completely in the world, and God was nowhere to be seen in our lives. We lived apart at that time, each in our own house. We also had our own friends, outings, lives and even vacations apart from each other. So “living apart together” (LAT), as they say “hip”. I had been in this relationship for a few years by the time I chose Jesus, again (I did that about 10 years earlier; read more about that in my blog, “My first encounter with Jesus”). So, while in this relationship I gave my life to Jesus and grew more and more with Him. My then-partner didn’t want to know anything about God. He thought it was all fine with what I did and that I went so completely for God, but he himself didn’t want to know anything about it. God created us all with our own free will, and He will never change that, including the will of my then-partner. The choice for Jesus must come from your own free will and from your own heart. No one can force this on you, not even God. The fact that you miss an incredibly great and beautiful opportunity when you do not choose Him and thus place your eternity in the balance is a story in itself. God’s Word is enough Well, fast-forward. While I was in this relationship, God showed me more and more often that this relationship was not what He wanted for me. I kept putting it away, but I couldn’t get away from the constant dissatisfaction inside me and the “gut feeling” the Holy Spirit gave me. There was never peace in the relationship, and in my spirit, I felt that this was not the way, although I initially pushed that realization away for a very long time and made up all kinds of excuses. We lived separately, we both had our own houses and were not married. Actually speaking; sinful in God’s eyes. I can still remember being in a Sunday service with beautiful worship. During that worship, God spoke in my Spirit: “Do you know what my Word says?” I immediately knew He was referring to this relationship with a person who does not love Him. In the Spirit I said “yes, Lord, I know Your Word.” “You just have to do what My Word says,” God said. From that moment on it took another year before I took the step to actually end the relationship. Meanwhile, God continued to speak about this patiently and in love all that time. I now know, but at that moment I didn’t want to believe it, and put it away for a while. Joined together The Bible warns us many times about a relationship with an unbeliever. Or rather, not having a relationship with an unbeliever. Not because we are “better” or they are not worth it. That’s not what it’s about at all. One is not better than the other, but we do live in completely different worlds than unbelievers. This is a completely different story if you are already married and one of the two becomes a believer during the marriage. The Bible says very different things about that. But the focus in this blog is mainly on the unequal yoke outside of marriage between a believer and unbeliever. I have experienced firsthand that God’s warnings about having a romantic relationship with an unbeliever while not married are, of course, true, as is the rest of His Word. “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”– 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 Imagine two animals who are joined together at the neck by a wooden yoke so they can pull a plow. They are two animals of the same species, joined together to accomplish a certain job. They’ve been trained to respond
