PROGRAM D-6787
I’m talking to Christian singles, addressing some common mistakes we make—many that I have made as a single woman. I talked about how we single women tend to become depressed or worried or desperate because there don’t seem to be enough Christian men to go around. If that’s something you struggle with, please remember that God has good plans for you, and you can trust him.
Often women ask me to pray that God will send them Christian husbands. I find it difficult to just pray, “God, she needs a Christian husband. Please send.” But what I can and do pray is that if marriage is in God’s plan for them, they will have wisdom and discernment in making that decision, and in the meantime, they would be focused on getting to know God and growing in their faith.
It’s not wrong to pray that God will fulfill your desire to be married, but that prayer has to conclude with “Nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done,” as Jesus prayed.
Telling God there is only one option for our lives and insisting that marriage is the only acceptable plan demonstrates our total lack of trust in a God who created us, knows us better than we know ourselves, and has good plans for us.
Do you think that your life can never be fulfilled and complete unless you are married? That’s a lie and the enemy loves to keep you mired in that lie, because then marriage becomes your idol and before you know it, you’ll make very poor choices and you’ll start manipulating your life and lowering your standards to try to get what you think you must have!
I know, because I was there for ten years—thinking that I had to be married and nothing else would do. It took me awhile to realize how sinful that attitude was—how I thought my plans for my life were better than God’s plans.
Isaiah 48:17,18 says: “This is what the Lord says…: ‘I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.'”
If you insist that God has to give you what you want—whether it’s marriage or something else—you could be unknowingly missing out on the good life God has planned for you. Abundant life comes by letting God direct the way you should go.