4 Marks God Is Getting You Ready to Be Married

Is God getting you ready for marriage?

Only God knows the future; but often times God prepares us for a calling before he allows us to walk in that calling.

So if these 4 things are happening in your life, this could mean God is getting you ready to be married.

1. When God Is Creating a Biblical Hope for Marriage in You, This Could Be a Mark He Is Getting You Ready to Be Married

God will never make you get married if you don’t want to be married. If you are bitter and shutdown 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 hope for marriage in your heart (Philippians 2:13).

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.

Thus, if you formally did not have a desire for marriage but then God starts softening your heart towards it, this could be a sign that God is actually preparing you for a Christian marriage.

2. When God Is Sanctifying Your Motives for Marriage, This Is a Good Mark He May Also Be Getting You Ready to Be Married

While God will first give you the desire to want to be married when he’s getting you ready for marriage, just because someone really wants to be married does not mean they are now biblically ready for it.

Sometimes people want a relationship for unbiblical or selfish reasons (James 4:3). When God is behind this development phase for a relationship, he will be sanctifying our desires so we want this human love in a biblical way.

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 for marriage instead. Biblical motives include Christian companionship (Genesis 2:18), the desire to love another through the covenant bond of marriage (Matthew 19:6), wanting to fulfill the biblical role of a husband or wife (Ephesians 5:33), desiring to love another through sex (1 Corinthians 7:2), and wanting to raise children in the Lord (Psalm 127:3).

Therefore, if you had a desire for marriage that wasn’t pure but then God starts refining your motives for marriage, this could be a sign that God is preparing you for a Christian marriage.

3. If God Is Maturing Your Character So You Can Be a Biblical Husband or Wife, This Could Be a Mark that God Is Getting You Ready to Be Married

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.

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 coming 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 that call in the future.

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 (Ephesians 5:22-33, 1 Peter 3:1-7), 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.

4. If God Is Giving You the Needed Relationship Experience to Meet, Date, and Marry the One He Has for You, This Could Be a Mark that God Is Getting You Ready for Marriage

Sometimes Christians who want to be married are prepared spiritually, biblically, and morally while also lacking the practical relationship tools that God normally uses in people’s lives in the process of them meeting, dating, and marrying the one.

For example, if you don’t know how to hold a conversation, if you scare every woman away because you come on way too strong and too soon, or if you push men away because you are not responding properly to their pursuit of you – then these practical skills will usually need to be developed before you can get into a relationship.

Yes, God is in control; but his sovereign will works through human means (Ephesians 2:10, Proverbs 16:33), 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 this person ghosts you. But then through that experience God is teaching you how to have realistic relationship expectations.

Thus, 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.

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