"My life is not on hold until I have someone to hold."
I have wasted 2 years searching for satisfaction in anything but the only one who can fully satisfy. While I was in Haiti it was Him who clearly wanted to take hold, grasp my arm and pull me from the pit of loneliness and self seeking desire that I'd been sitting in. Let me reveal truth that I had never allowed to penetrate my heart until very recently.
Whenever asked what I wanted to be, my response was, "A wife and mother... and of course serving the Lord for the rest of my life too." Guess what, that answer doesn't work anymore. It doesn't work because I was seeking my satisfaction in the hope of becoming a wife and mother someday and I was resigned to the lies that my life doesn't being until after I take someone else's last name. Truth is my life really isn't about me, in fact, it never has been. I've lived far too long making this life about me and searching for things, people, careers, etc. to satisfy a longing when God, the Creator of the universe, is the only water that can completely quench my thirst.
I had to learn a few tough lessons in Haiti, lessons that I am at a loss of words to describe how grateful I am that my God thought enough of me to teach them to me just to draw me into a special place of intimacy with Him. He wanted me to stand in the authority given to me as His beloved daughter the day He sent His only son to shed blood for me.
Being single is not a condition given in response to a lack of something we did or didn't do or something caused by us not being good enough. It's time to wake up! Those of you who are sitting in the same boat I sat in just 2 months ago, hear me out! Listen, being single is a gift! Being single is a time when we should be asking God, "What can I do to serve you? What can I do to serve your beloved around me? How can I grow each day, deeper into the man or woman you have designed for me to be?" I spent way too many nights alone at home crying and bathing in self pity, worthlessness, loneliness and feeding off the lies that the enemy was using to keep me from flourishing for my King during this precious time. This is a time for living in reckless abandonment for the One who created you and called you out of darkness.
There are many of you I know who are struggling with this. Hear this truth...in Jeremiah 29:11 the Lord promises that He has good things for us, He doesn't seek to harm us but to prosper us. Know that the things God has promised to you He's not slow in keeping to those promises as 2 Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." If that verse doesn't make you go "Wow!" then you need to check your heart. God is waiting for us to realize the truth about this season of singleness, no matter if you're 20, 35 or 58, He's not slow to keeping to His promises, He's waiting for us to get our act together. Also some of you may need to check your heart on the things you think He's promised to you and the things you've promised for yourself or the words you're putting in His mouth. 1 John 3:19-22 This then is how we know that we belong to truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts and He knows everything.
I've heard many people talk about being single over the past few years it's been mostly people who are already married. The one thing I hear from them time and time again is, "If only I had used my season of singleness as a time to serve God with reckless abandon rather than searching and dating a million people or sitting at home in self pity, oh what I could have done for Him."
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Something we need to hear that this world and the body of Christ doesn't share too often is this - every relationship on earth will pass away but the one relationship that will never fail us, that will never leave us, that will never fade or end, the one and only one that is for eternity is our relationship with God. Our relationship with Him should come above every other relationship here on this earth.
The Word of God is filled with SO much truth that He is faithful, that He loves us unconditionally and that all He asks is true devotion and love from us to Him - if we obey He has great things beyond our imaginations in store for us. I am choosing everyday to hold to the truths that He wrote in His Word for me and I believe that He is faithful and I put my hope and trust that the earthly things He has promised for me will come to pass in His perfect timing. Until then I commit to living a life in total reckless abandonment for the only One who is worthy.
What are you running after? Where are you searching to find your satisfaction? I challenge you to look into your lives and fall on your face before the One who created you if you have been looking for the things of this world to make you happy or please you. The time is now, get your act together and live totally sold out for your King. Your life is in play right now, it doesn't being the day you find love here on earth, it's already begun. Make this season of singleness a time without regrets, a time when you can look back on and say that you were committed to the Lord and you were crazy in love with Him. Serve others in His name, find satisfaction in Him and hold to His truth for your life. Hebrews 10:22-23 "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful."
