3 Signs God Is Preparing a Christian Single Man for Marriage

If you are a Christian single man, here are 3 things that happen when God is preparing you for marriage.

1. When God Is Preparing a Man for Marriage, He Will First Train that Man to Take Care of Himself

Marriage is for men, not boys. The biblical difference between boys and men is that boys need someone to take care of them while men are able to take care of others. Thus, to transition out of boyhood and into manhood, you must first be able to at least take care of yourself. If you can’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of others. And if you can’t take care of others, you are not ready for marriage as a man.

Therefore, if you want to lead a woman in marriage one day, you must start by leading yourself in biblically healthy ways:

Are you praying and reading the word of God daily? If you’re not developing yourself spiritually, how will you lead a family in this area?
Are you working hard to provide the food, shelter, and clothing you need? If you’re not, how can you provide for a family?
Are putting up boundaries in your life so wicked people are not influencing you into evil? If you’re not, how will you be able to protect your wife and children?

How you treat yourself will be how you treat others (Mark 12:31). There’s always a progression in a man of God’s life. Notice the qualifications for an elder listed in 1 Timothy 3:4-5, “He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?” Just an elder must first take care of his own household well before he will be able to take care of the church, so too must a single man be able to manage himself before he can be ready to take care of a woman.

Matthew 25:21, “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’”

2. When God Is Preparing a Man for Marriage, He Will Put a Healthy Loneliness in the Man that Will Motivate Him to Pursue a Wife

Marriage is not needed to be a man. You can be a godly man with a very full life that is glorifying to the Lord without having a wife. Marriage and singleness are both gifts from the Lord (1 Corinthians 7:7).

So how will a man know if God is preparing him for a life of marriage or for life of singleness? Usually when God is calling a man to marriage and not singleness, this calling will first manifest in the man’s desires. If a man does not want marriage, this is a sign God has not called him to marriage (1 Corinthians 7:37). But when a man has a strong desire for a wife that manifests in a relationship desire for a woman and a sexual desire for a woman, this is good evidence God wants that man to pursue marriage (1 Corinthians 7:36).

There is a healthy loneliness in a man that God puts there so that this man will have the motivation to pursue a woman. Genesis 2:18 states, “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.’” Remember, this verse takes place before Adam and Eve sinned. God designed Adam to long for Eve.

Therefore, if you are a man who is enjoying his life and serving the Lord but you also have a healthy longing to share this life with a woman, that is a good sign the Lord is probably preparing you for marriage.

3. When God Is Preparing a Man for Marriage, He Will Give that Man the Needed Experiences to Meet, Date, and Marry the Right Woman

If you are petrified to talk to women, if you scare every woman away because you come on way too strong, or if you have an overly idealistic view of relationships that will sabotage you once you actually get into a real relationship with an imperfect woman – then you do not possess the practical tools needed to meet the one God has for you.

While the Lord will train you through prayer and Bible study, he will also give you needed experiences to root out immaturity and to give you opportunities to grow as a man.

Perhaps you go on a date and it goes terrible. But through that bad experience you learn how to interact with women better. Perhaps you go on another date and you thought it went great but then she never responds to your calls. Through that experience God is teaching you how to have realistic relationship expectations.

Thus, one sign that God is preparing you for marriage is if he is training you in practical ways and helping you develop the needed relationship skills to get married one day.

When God is calling you, he will also be equipping you for that call (Hebrews 13:21).

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