Fire is an element and is beneficial in many ways. Fire is used to cook food, forge metal tools, form pottery, harden bricks, and drive power plants. In a fireplace, it gives light and heat to bring warmth to an entire home.
However, fire is destructive when abnormally used or taken out of its proper venue. The damage can take a long time to repair or become permanent.
God created fire with a designated purpose within proper confines. He created sexual intercourse, and it’s also a “fire”, per se. He has given strict criteria for its enjoyment. That would be the framework of marriage.
According to Ephesians 5:31-32, marriage is a symbol of the eternal relationship between Christ and the church. A by-product of that relationship is spiritual union. God desires these encounters regularly. When the church communes with God in prayer and worship and He speaks to the church, it is a rapturous and fulfilling encounter for both.
Sexual fulfillment is a physical representation of this spiritual ecstasy. The act of making love is an extension of a lifelong covenant between a man and a woman in marriage. Physical intimacy is an event He wants singles to save themselves for.
The writer of Hebrews 13:4 says, “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” As children of God, our heavenly Father wisely established this boundary as a mean of love and protection.
Solomon wrote in Proverb 2:12-15 to guide his son about sexuality. His counsel could also be applicable to single women when he says, “Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.”
Solomon further instructs his son in Proverbs 2:16-19. He advises single men saying, “Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.”
Solomon elaborates further in Proverbs 6:27-28 how trouble from sexual immorality is inevitable. He asks his child the searing questions, “Can a man scoop a flame into his lap and not have his clothes catch on fire? Can he walk on hot coals and not blister his feet?”
Knowing sexual temptation is a reality, God led the apostle Paul to discuss the matter in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 says, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
To any single man or woman, if someone has a “burning” for you and is unwilling to first become your spouse, he or she is undeserving of the privilege of sexual pleasure with you.
Please wait for someone who will honor God’s design for sexuality. Their honor for God means they will honor you.
Meanwhile, let your devotion and service to God burn with intensity.
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