To All The Singles Out There…

1 Corinthians 7:27
Are you pledged to a woman? Do not seek to be released. Are you free from such a commitment? Do not look for a wife.

1 Corinthians 7:35
I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.

I personally know singles who are pining for their spouse. Almost languishing. As I read these passages this morning, I realized that people have “bit the apple.” They believe the lie that they can only experience true love in marriage. The experience of knowing someone and being known fully and still being loved, wanted, and accepted is only for marriage. That’s a lie. You can know and experience love, experience what it’s like to be fully known, and still loved as a single person. I know it because I experienced it. God desires that intimacy and that relationship with you. You have a heart that can open up, expand, and give and receive love now. God made you for love. And you are the object of His love. If you aren’t experiencing that love, that passion, that burning for Jesus Christ, why not? It’s available to you.

If life has gotten in the way and the cares of this world have started to pile up, then fast. Fasting is a great way to brush off the dusty, hardened, calloused parts of our hearts that have forgotten its First Love. I know it always helps me reignite my passion and fire for Jesus. Which is why I fast multiple times a year in different ways. This world has a way of weighing us down and distracting us from what truly matters. It has a way of numbing our hearts and distracting our minds. Fasting is like recalibrating the coordinates and compass of your heart. It points True North again to Jesus, and all the unimportant falls away. The other loves (idols) lose their power and grip over your life.

As I am fasting, I am experiencing this reigniting in my heart. I prayed a few days ago that God would help me to get in touch with my heart. I felt like I couldn’t access certain parts of it that I used to be able to. It was feeling hard for me to express and give love, even with the Lord. This morning, as the flood gates of love and joy in Jesus opened in my heart I said, “I do know how to love! I just forgot how to use this part of my heart!” God is so good at freeing us in the unseen places. He sees what’s there and knows how to deliver.

Reading this passage in 1 Corinthians 7 this morning, I wanted to shake the single people in my life awake and say, “True Joy! True Peace! True Freedom! It’s found in JESUS!!! Go get it. It’s yours! Be free in Christ! Be happy in Christ! Dance, sing, shout. The Lord has given Himself to you!” What could be greater than that?!?!

Definitely not marriage. I love my husband and I love our marriage. But it only is what it is because of Jesus. He was the Match Maker. We both had pure, undivided devotion to the Lord before being united. And the Lord thought it fit for us to be married. So He united us in marriage. We did not see marriage as the end game or ultimate goal in life. Serving Jesus was, and still is. The best marriages are God ordained and God orchestrated (Elizabeth Elliot & Derek Prince both have great testimonies of this). He is the match maker. Seek Him and He will lead you to your spouse. Don’t seek your spouse.

If you’re pining for a spouse and not able to have peace and wait patiently in the Lord, trusting His timing, ask yourself if you’ve made marriage an idol. If you’ve bit the apple that says, “You’ll only be truly happy in a relationship. You’ll only experience the joy of love in marriage.” Lie. That’s a lie. Don’t believe it. There is true love to be had for you NOW. God is the Author of love and romance. What could be more powerful than experiencing a loving relationship with the Author Himself now?

Revelation 2:4-5
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.