1 Corinthians 7:36
Is God preparing you for marriage? We certainly cannot always know the will of God for our futures, but often times God prepares us for a calling before he allows us to walk in that calling.
So here are 3 signs that God might be preparing you for marriage.
- If God Is Developing a Biblical Desire for Marriage in You, This Could Be a Sign He Is Preparing You for Marriage
God will never make you get married if you don’t want to be married. If you are bitter and shut down towards marriage, God will not override your feelings and force you to get married anyways. Rather, if God actually does want you to get married one day, the first thing he will do is soften your heart towards marriage and develop a biblical longing for marriage in your heart.
Notice the emphasis on personal desire for marriage mentioned in 1 Corinthians 7:36, “If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry—it is no sin.” If you don’t wish to be married, God will not force it on you.
Many people want to be married, but that is not always a sign that God is preparing them for marriage because sometimes these desires can be unbiblical. If you have an unbiblical motive for marriage that is rooted in idolatry or infatuation, God will prepare your heart for marriage by helping you repent of the false motives for marriage so you can choose biblical motives instead.
In short, if you formally did not have a desire for marriage or if your desire was sinful, but then God starts softening your heart and purifying your desire for marriage, this could be a sign that God is actually preparing you for a Christian marriage.
- If God Is Maturing You So You Can Fulfill the Biblical Role of a Husband or Wife, This Could Be a Sign that God Is Preparing You for Marriage
God always equips those he calls. If you are not equipped by the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish a certain task, God is not calling you to fulfill that task at this point in your life. If God calls you to do something he will equip you to accomplish that call.
For example, if a man was wondering if God is calling him to be an elder in the church, that call would be confirmed by the man being equipped to fulfill the role of an elder as described in 1 Timothy 3:1-7. So if the man loved money, could not teach the word of God, and was struggling with drunkenness, all of which would disqualify him for eldership according to 1 Timothy 3, it would be clear that God is not calling him to be an elder at this point in life.
However, if over the months and years God starts maturing this man so he could fulfill the role of an elder, this could be a sign that God is preparing him for a call in the future. If the man overcomes his drunkenness, if he becomes a good Bible teacher, and he grows to possess the other biblical requirements for eldership, again, this could be a sign that God is calling the man to be an elder.
This same idea can be seen in those God is preparing for marriage. If at one point in life you were not prepared to fulfill your role as a biblical husband or wife, but then God starts maturing you so you are able to fulfill this role, then this could be a sign that God is preparing you for marriage.
- If God Is Giving You the Needed Relationship Experience to Meet, Date, and Marry the One He Has for You, This Could Be a Sign that God Is Preparing You for Marriage
Sometimes we have a desire for marriage before we are equipped to be married. Sometimes Christians lack the practical relationship tools that God normally uses in people’s lives in the process of them meeting, dating, and marrying the one.
If you are petrified to talk to the opposite sex, if you scare every girl away because you come on way too strong and too soon, or if you have an overly idealistic view of relationships that will sabotage you once you actually get into a relationship that has challenges like all real relationships do – then you do not possess the practical tools needed in most cases to meet the one God has for you.
Yes, God is in control but his sovereign will works through practical means, including in the dating process. So one sign that God is preparing you for marriage is if he is training you to develop the needed relationship skills. Perhaps you go on a date and it goes terrible. But through that bad experience you learn how to interact with the opposite sex. Perhaps you go on another date and you thought it went great but then he never calls you again. But through that experience God is teaching you how to have realistic relationship expectations.
If you start learning valuable relationship lessons and God starts teaching you practical tools that will help you in Christian dating, this could be a sign that God is preparing you for marriage.