6 Things Singles Need to Know about Marriage, Pt. 2
If you missed last week, you’ll want to look back at the first in this two-part series by Tami Myer. In these posts, she maps out a beautiful and biblical perspective on marriage for Christian singles.
Today, we pick up where we left off last time with the fourth thing singles should know about marriage.
If this post is a blessing to you, please leave a comment below-or share it with your single friends to encourage them in their walk.
***
#4. Marriage will not complete you.
Single people are not “halves” waiting for their other “halves” to join them. Two single people are two complete people. But after a man and a woman marry, God unites these two individuals as one married couple. Two people become one flesh and one team. [i]
Christ is the only One who is able to fully satisfy us. Whether we are married or single, Christ is the Lover of our souls who knows us completely, loves us unconditionally, and cares for us perfectly.
#5. Marriage is not the cure for loneliness.
Singles struggle with loneliness, but so do married people. In fact, some people say that the loneliness they experienced within marriage was more intense than the loneliness they felt when single.
Ravi Zacharias points out that the only lasting cure for loneliness is worship.
That may seem like a strange statement unless we understand that true worship is actually an expression of relationship. Worship is not a monologue of verbal praise or a one-person performance. Instead, it is a two-way relationship: we delight in knowing God, and God delights in knowing us. Genuine worship requires that we know God in our spirit (not just as facts in our brain) and in truth. [ii]
Without worship, we experience only temporary relief from loneliness through various distractions. But true worship can be a continual posture of our soul; it becomes a lifestyle. If we live in worship, then we can live free of deep loneliness.
#6. Marriage is an assignment from God.
Marriage is a calling to serve another person. It is as much a calling as a missionary’s call to Africa or a pastor’s call to preach. A wife is called to minister to her husband’s needs, and a husband is called to minister to his wife’s needs.
If you marry because someone makes you happy, what will you do on the day that he or she doesn’t make you happy? (And that day will arrive sooner than you expect.)
Most of the reasons that people give for marrying then flip into their reasons for leaving: “he was kind, but now he’s not,” or “she was attentive and appreciative, but now she’s not.” However, if your reason for marrying is to serve, then you will never have a reason to leave because you will always be able to serve.
If God is calling you to serve Him as a single now, then fulfill that calling with everything you’ve got.
If God calls you someday to serve as a husband or wife, then fulfill that calling with everything you’ve got.
And don’t be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God’s place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. God, not your marital status, defines your life. (1 Corinthians 7:17 MSG)
The calling is God’s business. Faithfulness to the calling is our business.
~ Tami Myer, MannaForMarriage.com
Notes
[i] Genesis 2:20-24; Mark 10:6-9
[ii] John 4:24
