Romans 8:1
Here are 4 spiritual barriers than can block you from having a good relationship that glorifies God.
I also wanted to quickly let you know that the deadline to enroll in AGW University is tonight, 11/21/22, at 11:59pm. These relationship training courses are not going to give you a spell that makes someone fall in love with you. I’m not offering you magical promises. However, I do really believe the biblical truths in these courses can dramatically change your life and relationships.
If you enroll before 11:59pm tonight, you get lifetime access to all 7 of these relationship courses, 3 months of bonus email coaching with me, lifetime access to the private Facebook group which has over 890 other students in it currently, and you will get the $60 scholarship.
Feel free to click here to learn more before the deadline passes by.
1. A Spiritual Agoraphobia
As one medical website states, “Agoraphobia is a type of anxiety disorder in which you fear and avoid places that might cause you to panic and make you feel trapped, helpless or embarrassed. The anxiety is caused by fear that there’s no easy way to escape or get help if the anxiety intensifies.”1 As you can see, this phobia is not just about avoiding public places. Rather, it’s about fearing public places where you might be unable to escape or get help.
This can happen in a spiritual and relational sense too. Because of past trauma or a propensity to worry, many of us can avoid Christian communities and relationships not because we fear interacting with them but rather because we fear we might get trapped in them and be unable to escape or find help if things go bad.
For example, if you experienced being trapped in a cult-like church that shamed you for leaving, you may now struggle to get connected with new Christians in fear of this happening again. Now that you are free, you feel you must protect your freedom by never getting involved again in a Christian community.
The problem with this, however, is that through Christian communities we get many good needs met that God designed us to have (Galatians 6:1-5, Genesis 2:18). Additionally, through thriving in a bigger community, you often gain access to a more intimate community with just a few close friends. And oftentimes you meet your spouse in these types of settings.
So if you are afraid of getting trapped in a bad Christian community, this may also be preventing you from forming close friends which can prevent you from meeting your future spouse.
2. Spiritual Shame
Many people get into a vicious cycle of dysfunctional dating because they feel ashamed for their relationship mistakes and then they try to ease their shame through more dysfunctional dating. When you fall to sin, Satan will come in with the lie, “There’s no hope for you. You might as well ease your shame by sinning more because you already ruined your life anyways.”
This is anti-gospel thinking. For as Romans 8:1 states, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” If you are not in Christ Jesus, you are condemned because of your sin. But if you are in Christ Jesus through faith and by grace, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:20-21).
Shame will keep you single because you will only date people you will not marry because you feel too unworthy to date the type of person you would marry. Replace your shame with the righteousness of Christ so you can put an end to this vicious cycle.
3. Spiritual Superiority
Just as we can view ourselves too unworthy and other people as better than they really are, so too can we view ourselves too highly and other people as worse than they are. As Paul said in Romans 12:3, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”
One way a spiritual superiority manifests in Christian singles is through the creation of unrealistic lists of requirements their future spouse must have. While Christians should have some standards for who they decide to date and marry, too often we allow our flesh to “think of ourselves more highly than we out to think.”
Oftentimes our lists of requirements just become a list of barriers blocking us from meeting really great people that just don’t match the perfect description of what we thought we wanted in a future spouse. Hold to biblical standards but allow God to open your heart to the right person rather than religiously looking for someone who matches your list.
(Note: I talk a lot more about biblical standards for marriage compared to creating an unhealthy list in my course called Marriage Material: The Qualities to Develop in Yourself and Look for in Another if You Desire a Healthy Christian Marriage One Day.)
4. A Heart Attachment to Another Person
The reason God tells us to guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23) is because once our hearts get attached, it’s much harder to move on than it would have been to just prevent this unhealthy attachment from beginning in the first place.
Thankfully, if you are attached to someone you know is not the person God wants you with, there is still hope. It will be painful, but God can set you free and help you genuinely let this person go. It will hurt at first, but over time, you will no longer feel the sting of their absence and you will find space in your heart to invite someone new in.
This is one of the reasons I created AGW University. In my course called Heart Check, for example, I help Christian singles break unhealthy attachments and heal from past relationship wounds.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the deadline to enroll in AGW University will close tonight at 11:59pm.
I certainly cannot guarantee that if you enroll in these relationship training courses that God will send you a spouse right away. This biblical content is not mystical information promising you lavish blessings, and I would never want to mislead anyone by making them think I know a secret marriage formula.
However, what I can promise you is that if you are in a season of life where you are prepared to work hard and truly study what the word of God says about relationships, you will grow immensely by enrolling in AGW University. And while I would never claim to have a secret marriage formula, I have created a wise blueprint that you can follow to increase your chances of meeting the one God might have for you.
I believe so much in the biblical information packed into these courses that I offer a 30-day money back guarantee for anyone not fully satisfied with their experience, no questions asked. Here’s what a few recent students have said about their experiences:
If you enroll before the deadline, which is tonight at 11:59pm, you will get:
- Lifetime access to all 7 relationship training courses, which is a total of 73 in-depth biblical classes. Each class has a video and the content is all in writing as well.
- You will also get lifetime access to the AGW University private Facebook group. This is where all the students can come together, share their struggles, make new friends, and learn from each other. I started this group as a little side bonus, but it has since blossomed into a thriving, encouraging community of likeminded people. This group has over 890 students in it thus far.
- Also, if you enroll before the deadline, I’m giving you three months of bonus email coaching with me for no additional tuition cost. This is where you can share your personal story with me and you and I can create an individualized plan just for you to help you follow the Lord’s leading in your life specifically.
- Lastly, for everyone who enrolls before 11:59pm tonight, I am also giving you a $60 scholarship.
Again, this is not a magical formula. Rather, this is an invitation to those of you who desire to go to the next level and receive specialized relationship training that stems right from God’s word.
Click here and you can see all the course content and all the other bonuses I haven’t even mentioned yet. I’ll see you over at AGW University. God bless!