You say, \u2018Surely a man or woman can change when they meet the right partner?\u2019 No. Only God can change people\u2014and you are not God! Plus, when you \u2018need to be needed\u2019, it can cause you to make disastrous relationship choices in life. Perhaps you have heard stories of people who have experienced massive change through their marriage. But the truth is, the power to change must come from within<\/i> the person themselves, not from you. When you try to change your spouse, it doesn\u2019t work, and eventually your \u2018hope\u2019 for change makes you \u2018sick\u2019.<\/p>\n
The Bible tells us that deferred hope makes us heartsick. When you keep longing for and envisioning something that never materialises, your heart is torn with disappointment. Then you start making excuses for what\u2019s not working in the relationship, even as it becomes obvious to those around you. Sound relationship decisions are not based on hope alone\u2014especially hope that is blind to \u2018red flag\u2019 behaviour.<\/p>\n
People of faith often try to spiritualise every issue. In the name of \u2018faith\u2019, they downplay their instincts and ignore their sense of unease. That\u2019s not having faith in God! Faith in God should be just that\u2014faith in God.<\/i> We must not place our faith in fallible men and women, because they will fail us. <\/p>\n
God gives each of us a will, but He doesn\u2019t force us to change. Change must come from within each of us as we accept the grace that God extends to us each day. \u2018The Lord opened [Lydia\u2019s] heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.\u2019<\/i> (Acts\u00a016:14\u00a0NKJV) Here is a better option: pray<\/i> for them, and let God<\/i> change them!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You say, \u2018Surely a man or woman can change when they meet the right partner?\u2019 No. Only God can change people\u2014and you are not God! Plus, when you \u2018need to be needed\u2019, it can cause you to make disastrous relationship choices in life. Perhaps you have heard stories of people who have experienced massive change […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}