Here are 4 possible reasons for why God keeps allowing someone to pop up in your thoughts.
I also wanted to quickly let you know that there are only a few hours left to enroll in AGW University. These relationship training courses are not magic, but I do truly believe they have the potential to greatly transform the trajectory of your life if you put in the time and hard work that is required. If you enroll before 11:59pm tonight, you get lifetimes access to all 5 of these relationship courses, free access to my newest course about sexuality, 3 months of bonus email coaching with me, lifetime access to the private Facebook group which has over 700 other students in it currently, and all at the reduced tuition cost. Feel free to click here to learn more before the deadline passes by.
1. God Could Be Allowing This Person to Keep Popping Up in Your Thoughts So You Can Forgive Him or Her or Ask This Person for Forgiveness
An unforgiven offense between you two will keep this person in your mind.
Throughout the Bible, there is a link between God’s forgiveness and God forgetting our sins (Psalm 25:6-7, Psalm 103:12). I don’t believe this is talking about the literal forgetting where something is wiped from God’s memory. I believe this is referring to God erasing the offense made against his holiness (1 John 1:9).
Likewise, I believe this type of forgetting is available to us through forgiveness too. Again, I’m not talking about an event being erased from your memory. I’m talking about the type of forgetting where the pain from an offense against you is not felt anymore or the shame stemming from an offense you committed against someone else is not felt anymore.
When it comes to committing an offense against someone in your past, it is possible God is bringing this person to your mind so you can ask for forgiveness. In Matthew 5:23-24, Jesus said, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
Notice, too, however, that even when someone has sinned against you God tells you to be proactive in offering forgiveness. In Matthew 18:15 Jesus also said, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.”
Certainly wisdom should be applied here. If someone was abusive and God does not want you to reconcile with them, you can still forgive them in your heart so you can forget them and move on. Or if someone you once dated is now dating or married to someone else, I don’t think it is appropriate to contact them to confess your past sins. Confess them to God and know that he has forgiven you (1 John 1:9).
The main point I’m making here is that this person could keep popping up in your thoughts because there is an unforgiven offense between you two.
2. God Could Allow Someone to Keep Popping Up in Your Thoughts to Motivate You to Pray About Pursuing a Relationship with This Person
When I was single and before I met Bethany, like any young man there were multiple times where I became very interested in a woman that would keep popping up in my mind. God would then use these thoughts to motivate me to pray about the possibility of pursuing this person. In the end, all of these experiences eventually ended with God making it clear I should not purse those women.
But then when my friendship with Bethany started to progress into something more, I was thinking a lot about her. Again, these thoughts motivated me to pray about the possibility of pursuing a relationship with her. But this time I kept getting green lights from God until finally her and I proceeded through all the steps towards marriage.
The point I’m making here is not that consistent thoughts about someone are a clear sign God wants you to pursue that person. Rather, consistent thoughts about someone are signs you need to pray more about what God does or does not want you to pursue. When you have clarity that God does not want you to pursue someone, the thoughts about this person will slow down and eventually fade away completely. On the other hand, God could allow you to keep thinking about this person as a way of getting you to pray more about this so he can tell you to pursue something more.
Either way, do what it says in Colossians 4:2, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
3. God Could Be Allowing You to Think About This Person Because You Have Not Let Them Go Even Though He’s Telling You to
Perhaps you’ve already done what I talked about in point 2. You’ve prayed about it and sense that God is telling you not to pursue this person. But perhaps you are also being tempted to interpret that no as a maybe. Perhaps you are really getting a red light but you are tempted to believe it is just a yellow light.
Certainly there are times where God could let you meet the right person at the wrong time and then he will bring you two back together at the right time. But in the vast majority of instances, what God is often saying is for you to completely move on.
God has given us authority over our minds. He won’t force us to think about someone but he will allow us to think about someone if we are refusing to move on. Our thoughts are often a manifestation of our inner feelings. Perhaps these thoughts aren’t really a thinking issue but more so a heart issue.
I certainly don’t know if this point relates to you and explains why you keep thinking about someone, but if you are having lots of thoughts about someone and you feel like you shouldn’t be, it is wise to ask the Lord if he wants you to completely move on or to keep hoping for this relationship.
If you ask in faith and humility, the Lord will make it clear to you (James 1:5-8, James 4:2-6).
4. God Could Be Allowing These Thoughts to Help You Realize This Person Has Become a Symbolic Place Holder So You Will Then Dive Deeper Into the Truth Behind the Symbol
Not to get too mystical on you, but I do believe that sometimes the person we think about isn’t really the reason we are thinking about them.
Oftentimes our deepest longings are controlling our thoughts from the subconscious shadows. It’s possible your deep longing for a spouse has simply attached itself to this person. You may be finding it difficult to stop thinking about this person because your longing for marriage has been united to this person’s face in your mind.
One way to overcome this is to detach this person from your deeper longing for a spouse. You have to keep your healthy desire for a godly marriage but you have to let go of the false hope that this desire will be satisfied through this one person you keep thinking about. God calls us to sanctify every part of our being, including all our desires. As 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (NIV) states, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”
When you can accept this person isn’t really what you are thinking about but you are only thinking about this person because of what they have come to represent for you, you can then let the image of this person pass by in your thoughts while you still hold onto the good desire for a godly marriage one day.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the deadline to enroll in AGW University will close tonight in just a few hours at 11:59pm. I certainly cannot guarantee that if you enroll in AGW University that God will send you a spouse right away. These training courses are not magic and I would never want to mislead anyone by making them think I know a secret marriage formula.
However, what I can promise you is that if you are in a season of life where you are prepared to work hard and truly study what the word of God says about relationships, you will grow immensely by enrolling in AGW University. And while I would never claim to have a secret marriage formula, I have created a wise blueprint that you can follow to increase your chances of meeting the one God might have for you. I believe so much in the biblical information packed into these courses that I offer a 30-day money back guarantee for anyone not fully satisfied with their experience, no questions asked. Here’s what a few recent students have said about their experiences:
I enrolled a week ago into the course, after thinking too long about it, and have to say it is amazing and I am learning a lot.” -Fran
“I know there’s no 100% guarantee that I’ll get married from taking your courses, but they’ve already helped me in my relationship with Jesus and at the end of the day, that’s the relationship that matters most.” -Caleb
“Hi Mark, we haven’t emailed in awhile, but I wanted to catch you up on some exciting news. The man I last spoke about in my emails… we are now married! With that being said I want to thank you for everything you are doing to help people understand God better when it comes to dating and relationships. Your ministry is definitely a blessing and when I was single trying to figure everything out it provided support and guidance for me.” -Rashell
If you enroll before the deadline, which is tonight at 11:59pm, you will get all 5 relationship training courses, which is a total of 63 in-depth biblical classes. Each class has a video and the content is all in writing as well. In addition to lifetime access to these 5 courses designed specifically for Christian singles who want to know a biblical path for singleness and dating, you will also get lifetime access to the AGW University private Facebook group. This is where all the students can come together, share their struggles, make new friends, and learn from each other. I started this group as a little side bonus, but it has since blossomed into a thriving, encouraging community of likeminded people. This group has over 700 students in it thus far.
Also, if you enroll before the deadline, I’m giving you three months of bonus email coaching with me for no additional tuition cost. This is where you can share your personal story with me and you and I can create an individualized plan just for you to help you follow the Lord’s leading in your life specifically.
The reduced tuition cost and all the bonuses will expire at 11:59pm tonight.
Again, this is not a magical formula. Rather, this is an invitation to those of you who desire to go the next level and receive specialized relationship training that stems right from God’s word. Click here and you can see all the course content and all the other bonuses I haven’t even mentioned yet. I’ll see you over at AGW University. God bless!
