For a lot of singles, the wait for their beloved turns into frustration against God. We don’t want to admit it, because we are afraid of making Him angry, or because we are afraid to ruin our near perfect journey. But why hasn’t God done it?
Psalm 37:4 is the verse that most people give to singles to encourage them as they wait. It’s also the verse that Passion374 was based on. It says : “Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.” (NKJV)
Unfortunately, this verse is often misunderstood or misinterpreted. Some people read the verse this way: “Be a good Christian, do all the things that God loves, and God will have no choice but to give you everything you desire.” However when we study this verse, we realize what it really means : “Love God with all your heart, let your heart be passionate and hungry for the things of God and God will give you what your heart hunger for, which is… Himself and what pleases Him!”
The distinction is important, because if our heart doesn’t hunger for God, it will never be satisfied, and will be frustrated. It’s true in our search for our beloved one, but it’s also true for all the things we want. We need to stop using this verse, or our good works, to demand things of God. God owes us nothing. He has already given us everything through His Son. He did not save us to give us everything we desire, He saved us because we were lost without Him.
Sometimes we need to go back and look at the essence of our salvation. The price Jesus paid for us was very high, and we should be thankful for it every day. This sacrifice freed us, and we are no longer slaves to the things of this world. Through His sacrifice, we no longer need anything to be happy, we are happy in Christ. We no longer need to have a lot of money to avoid insecurity, our security is in Christ. We no longer need a partner to feel loved, Christ’s love fills us. We no longer need a great profession to feel important, we know that we are princes and princesses.
When we feel something is lacking in an area of our life, it may be because we have stopped looking at our eternal salvation. Some people “accept” the Lord because someone made promises along the lines that God would find them a new job, that He would erase their debts and make them rich, or that He would find them a husband or wife. Many of those Christians give up on their salvation when they do not see their prayers answered. Their problem is that they didn’t give their lives to God for the proper reason. The only reason we should give our life to God is because we know that our lives will lead us nowhere, that only God can give meaning to our lives. When we accept Christ for that reason, there is less risk of us abandoning our faith.
God is not obliged to give you a husband or wife. God is not obliged to pay your debts or to prevent all sorts of suffering. In Hebrews 11 we read that a lot of Christians died as martyrs for their faith. Why didn’t God prevent them from suffering? Some people then complains that: What’s the point of serving God if He doesn’t prevent us from suffering? The answer is because we serve God for what He has already given us: eternal salvation. That’s it. Because the salvation is enough for us to give ourselves wholly to Him.
This does not mean that you will live in poverty or suffer martyrdom as a Christian. It just means that we have to stop forcing God to give us everything we want. We should just tell Him our needs, and trust Him to answer those needs in His own way. Then, let’s just worship Him with all our heart for what He has already given us : His Son.