2 Corinthians 12:9
When you meet the person God wants you to spend the rest of your life with, it’s going to be very different than every other relationship experience you have had. It’s not always going to be the easiest relationship experience, but it will be the most incredible.
Here are 4 reasons you will be amazed when God puts you two together.
1. You Will Have Finally Let Go of Some Former Hope Which Frees God to Bless You with Something New
One of the primary reasons so many people lose hope in the idea of being in a healthy relationship one day is because of an unfulfilled hope in the past.
When you hoped that something would turn out to be greater than it turned out to be, the disappointment you are left with can leave a giant void in your soul. Because you’ve been let down in the past, you assume you will always be let down in the future.
In C.S. Lewis’ book called Letters to Malcom, he wrote:
It seems to me that we often, almost sulkily, reject the good that God offers because, at that moment, we expected some other good . . . God shows us a new facet of the glory, and we refuse to look at it because we’re still looking for the old one. And of course we don’t get that . . . If God granted all the silly prayers I’ve made in my life, where would I be now?” (Pages 34-37)
This is a hurdle we all have to overcome anytime we truly receive something good from the Lord, letting go of former hopes when God says no so that we can be open to when he says yes to something new.
And so, when you do finally meet the person God wants you to be with, he will grant you the grace to let go of the former relationship hopes you had so you will then be free to receive the new relationship blessing you could not have foreseen but which God already had planned for you.
2. The Barriers Trying to Block the Relationship Will Help Rather than Hurt You Both
When my wife and I were dating and getting closer to engagement, she asked her dad about our age difference. She was 26 and I was 21. I had a job and was working towards my future degrees, but obviously I did not have the career and salary I would have preferred to have before getting married. When she asked her dad about the timing of us getting married, he said, “If that’s the worst concern there is about you two getting married, you should just get married.”
Having this age gap wasn’t easy. I had to speed a few things up and Bethany had to slow a few things down. But in the long-run, this little obstacle in our relationship has helped our relationship far more than it hurt it.
I say all of this because every relationship has some variable in it that is not ideal. Sometimes these obstacles are signs that God does not want you two together. One way you will know that is the case is by the effect this obstacle is having on your relationship. If the obstacle is ultimately pulling you two apart rather than strengthen your relationship even more, it’s probably a sign it’s not meant to be.
But when the challenge is actually bonding you two even closer together in a biblical way, this is an amazing act of God that usually means this is the person he wants you to be with. When it’s God’s will for you, he doesn’t always remove the barrier but he will give you the grace to get through it (2 Corinthians 12:9).
3. You Will See How All Your Past Relationship Trials Have Prepared You for This Blessing
Your training won’t make sense until you finally get the assignment.
David didn’t know why God made him fight the lion and the bear when protecting his father’s sheep. But when it was time for David to face Goliath, suddenly David understood that God was preparing him for this moment (1 Samuel 17:36-37).
The same is often true when it comes to God’s training for you and the person he has planned for you to marry one day. The relationship trials and disappointments will be very confusing in the moment. But then, when you end up using those skills you learned in the past so you can be successful with this person, you will know this was an amazing act of God to prepare you in ways you didn’t even know you would need to be prepared for.
4. You Will Be Content to Face the Unknowns Together
Rather than tell you what your future will be with this person, he will give you both the courage, faith, and willingness to face all the unknowns together.
This is the essence of Christian marriage vows, “I, _____, take thee, _____, to be my wedded wife/husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my faith.” The whole focus here is that you both will be committed through whatever happens.
This is amazing. Normally, we say no when there are too many unknowns ahead. But when God leads you to the person he has for you, both of you will be content to face all the unknowns together (Mark 10:9).
