“Delight yourself in the
Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” -Psalm 37:4
I’m tired of hearing this
verse used as an encouragement to the Christian single. I don’t mean to undermine the joy of anyone
who has experienced its effects in regard to their own relationships. And I don’t mean to knock online dating for
those who feel led by God to pursue it.
It’s a personal conviction, and it’s not appropriate for me to place my
own convictions about dating on anyone else, just as it would be wrong for any
other category—dancing, drinking, worship style, etc.
“Delight yourself in the
Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Absolutely.
But if you’re truly delighting in the Lord, then won’t the desire of
your heart be HIM? And that’s exactly
what He will give you. More of Himself.
Of course, that doesn’t mean
we don’t have other desires as well, and that doesn’t mean that all of those desires
are bad. Our bodies want food; they need
food to keep going. But Jesus is also
quick to remind us that “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word
that comes from the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4).
Marriage is a good
thing. God designed it, and a godly
marriage absolutely glorifies Him. But
so does a godly single person. I feel
like there are so many messages, even from churches, that tell us as long as
you’re single, your life is on hold somehow…so you should do the best you can
until God’s match for you comes along, and THEN you can REALLY start living.
But we start living the
moment we receive Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Marriage might be the start of a new adventure, a new direction for two
lives becoming one, but it’s not the start of life itself. And for those of us who are single now, it
doesn’t mean we’re “less alive.”
I’m exactly where God wants
me to be right now, and I have exactly what He wants me to have. So that’s how I’m going to live. I don’t want to miss out on what He has for me
to do today because I’m too busy thinking about tomorrow.
“Therefore do not worry about
tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of
its own.” -Matthew 6:34
God will guide me tomorrow to
what He wants me to do tomorrow. For
now, all I want is more of Him.
