Your walk with the Lord is the most essential thing in your life. You’re not a Christian in name only; your belief in Christ defines every aspect of who you are.
You’re at a point in your life when you start to want to share it with someone else. You don’t just want to share your life, but you also want to share your values. You want someone who can help you serve God while also helping you fill a void in your life that only love can fill.
The Foundation of Christian Dating
The very foundation of Christian dating is your belief in Jesus Christ. He is the foundation of the church and everything in your life. However, as a Christian, you know that it’s so much deeper than that.
The values that you hold so dear, the traditions that you work so hard to mold your life around, that’s what being a Christian is all about. It’s not just a belief in Christ; it’s also making sure your life reflects those teachings.
As you begin to date others, the one more important principle is if they share the same values as you do. You want someone in your life who abides by the teachings of Christ and doesn’t stray from them.
Biblical Perspectives on Love and Relationships
We all know that God wants us to find love. After all, he did create Adam and Eve. The fact that he created man and woman and they lived as one tells us a lot about how God views our need for love and companionship.
The Bible offers profound insights into love, respect, and commitment. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, love is described as patient, kind, and selfless. This passage sets the standard for what love should look like in a romantic relationship.
The Bible was written thousands of years ago, and it can sometimes feel a bit outdated. The messages themselves aren’t outdated; the language used to deliver them might be. God wants you to find love, get married, and live happily ever after. There can’t be any doubt about that at all.
Relationships work as they’re intended to when you put God in the center of them. Something miraculous happens when the Lord is your focus, and it allows you to focus on the principles that are the building blocks of a good relationship. It allows you to focus first on what matters most in life, and then you take those same principles and use them when dealing with your relationship.
Try Online Christian Dating
There’s a great debate about whether Christians should join a dating site solely focused on connecting Christians or if they should use the same dating sites as everyone else. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to that question.
If you are living in a rural area, the small, more niche Christian dating sites might not have enough matches in your area. However, if you’re in a big city, you might find that the people who claim to be Christian may be more casual in their faith.
The best answer to this long-simmering question is that you should sign up for free accounts at both Christian dating sites and look around. You might find plenty of people in your area at one type of site over another. No one can tell you for certain that this is the type of site you should join.
No matter what type of dating site you join, you’ll still have to vet the people who you communicate with. You’ll need to get to know them, find out where they are in their walk with the Lord, and ask all the questions you would if you just met someone at church. Just because it’s a Christian dating site doesn’t mean you can skip over all that and not ask those questions.
Communication and Boundaries
As you probably already know, not everyone who claims they’re a Christian shares the same values as you do. You might find that some people are more open to doing things while dating than you’re not. We’re not only talking about sex but also things like being alone or getting physical.
The first thing you do is make sure that there are open lines of communication with your potential date before you go on a date. You need to set the boundaries from day one so that they understand where you’re coming from. No, you don’t need to tell them no sex before marriage when they send you an icebreaker message. You don’t want to be so over the top that you scare people away.
There is nothing wrong with making sure that when the time is right, you’re honest with the person and you let them know where you stand on things. If you don’t believe in sex before marriage, it’s good that you tell them early on during your conversations.
It’s those boundaries that enable you to ensure that nothing taints your relationship with Jesus. If the other person doesn’t share the same values as you, it’s time to move on. That’s why you discuss these things long before you go on your first date. What you’re trying to do is avoid falling in love with someone who isn’t on the same path as you are.
Getting to Know Your Divine Match
Getting to know your matches is super easy in today’s world. Every person has a smartphone in their pocket, and it has a camera. You can use a variety of apps to chat with someone using your webcam for free. There’s no good excuse why you shouldn’t do this before seeing the person in the real world.
It’s important that you talk and see the person long before you go on a first date. You can use your instinct to gauge if you think the person is serious about their journey with Jesus. It’s all about their body language and how they talk about their journey.
Use this time to talk about your faith and what aspects of it are important to you. It’s also a good time for the two of you to pray together. You can ask God to guide you and help you two come closer or do whatever to fulfill His purpose. Now is the time for you to get the Lord involved so that you have a strong foundation for your relationship if one ever comes to fruition.
Building a Solid Foundation
Let’s talk a little bit more about building the solid foundation around the Lord that will become so important in your relationship. A first date at church is always a good thing, and you should consider it. Chances are the two of you go to different churches, so it might be a little exciting to get to know some new people.
You should go to church together at some point during the dating process. You might not go to Sunday school or Wednesday services together, but maybe you could attend a prayer meeting or something else. It’s understandable that neither of you might not want to give up your regular church activities right away for someone you just started dating.
Navigating Challenges
The most obvious challenge Christians have while dating is keeping purity. It’s easy to slip up and have sex. Boundaries are a must, and you might even consider not being alone with each other until you decide to get married. That’s not to say that if you decide to get married it’s a green light to have sex, however, it does signal that you’re serious about the relationship and you’re ready to move onto the next level.
You may also find that sometimes if the person you’re dating is struggling in their faith, it can bring you down too. It’s not unheard of for worldly things to bring a person down and make them question things. Life has a way of throwing some horrible things at us, and sometimes, they can be almost impossible to deal with.
People can be difficult to deal with without any specific reasons. A bad day can throw a person into a bad mood, road rage can ruin a perfectly good day, or a whole host of other things can rub someone the wrong way. People take things out on those who are the closest to them, and if that’s you, you’ll catch the brunt of it.
You will need to go to your church’s elders or those you trust and ask for advice. There’s nothing wrong with going to your pastor and asking for guidance on how to handle something. It’s far better for you to seek out help than it is to try to solve problems on your own. Utilize the experience others have to ensure that you handle the situation properly.
Enjoy Christian Love
God wants you to be happy. He wants you to find love and enjoy the bond that a man and woman have. God desires that every person reading this finds someone to spend their lives with. God wouldn’t have led by example, creating Adam and Eve, if he didn’t want us to build long-lasting, healthy relationships.
Happiness is what God wants for your life. You were not meant to live alone and unhappy the rest of your life. God wants to fill your life and heart full of love. God is love, so he sent his only Son here.
Your life should be filled with love. You already know that God loves you, and the evidence of that is in the blood of Jesus. Now, you need to go out there and tap into that love. God’s love is like sunshine; you can bask in it if you’re willing to expose yourself to it.
Conclusion
A person can’t truly be happy if they don’t have love in their lives. Online dating is the perfect way for busy Christians to find love and hopefully get married. Utilize the latest technology and use dating sites to help filter out those people who might be best for you.
Don’t rush into things; allow your relationship to grow and see where it goes. Use the camera on your phone or the webcam on your laptop to see and hear the person. Get to know not only them as a person but also get to know them on a spiritual level. Take the time out to find out what their hopes and dreams are. You need to know what they want to do with their lives and how the Lord has impacted them.
It’s all about doing what God wants. If you can find someone who lifts up the Lord using their life, you’ll go in the right direction. Keep Christ as the center of your focus, and everything will fall into place from there.
