Without hope, our hearts sink into despair. With it, we can endure hardship, waiting, and even disappointment with the assurance that God is still working (Romans 15:13).
If you feel weary in your waiting for marriage, the Lord may be whispering, “Don’t give up hope.” He has not forgotten you, and his timing is still perfect. Here are four signs that God is calling you to keep hoping for your future marriage.
1. If You’ve Tried to Be Proactive to Meet Someone But It Never Worked, This Is a Sign God Is Saying, “Don’t Give Up Hope for Your Future Marriage”
You may have tried online dating, joined a church group, or said yes when friends tried to set you up, only to feel like every attempt ended in disappointment. It can be disheartening, but your effort is not wasted.
Proverbs 16:9 reminds us, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Your efforts may not have led to marriage yet, but God wastes nothing. Through each experience, God is training and preparing you. He’s accomplishing things you aren’t even aware of.
Additionally, wisdom is not about always getting the results you want. However, wisdom does teach us that when we consistently do wise things, we are far more likely to get the results we want. Thus, just because something didn’t work in the past doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try it again.
Think of it like planting seeds in a field. A farmer can faithfully plant and water, but only God can make the seeds grow (1 Corinthians 3:7). Sometimes you have a great harvest, sometimes you have a good harvest, and sometimes you have a bad harvest. A wise farmer, however, will keep planting every year regardless of what happened in the past. He will learn and adapt his strategy. But he doesn’t abandon farming just because he sometimes doesn’t reap what he expected.
Don’t lose heart. Your faithfulness in trying to meet someone will be used for good, and God can use even “failed” attempts as part of your preparation for the relationship he has in store.
2. If You’ve Broken Up or Lost Contact with Someone Who You Thought Was Your Future Spouse and Now You Don’t Want to Put Yourself Out There Again to Meet Someone New, This Is a Sign God Is Saying, “Don’t Give Up Hope for Your Future Marriage”
Few things sting like believing someone was “the one” only to have the relationship end. You may feel like you already gave your best to someone who didn’t stay. That grief can harden your heart and tempt you to completely withdraw from the hope for marriage.
But the Lord promises to redeem brokenness if we stay in his presence. Psalm 34:18 says, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” The end of a relationship you hoped for does not mean the end of your love story. God is not limited to one person; his plan is greater than our assumptions.
Imagine a traveler who thought they had reached the right train, only to realize the train they boarded was going the wrong way. It doesn’t mean there are no more trains; it just means they need to get off that train and find the one that truly goes to their destination. In the same way, just because one relationship didn’t work doesn’t mean God won’t lead you to the right one.
Don’t let past heartbreak rob you of future hope. Instead, let God heal your heart, so you can love again with wisdom and strength.
3. If You’ve Always Wanted to Be Married and Have Kids but You’ve Never Even Dated Someone, This Is a Sign God Is Saying, “Don’t Give Up Hope for Your Future Marriage”
For some, the discouragement is not from past relationships but from never having one at all. You may wonder, “If I haven’t dated by now, is something wrong with me? Has God forgotten me?” But your desires are not random; they are part of how God wired you.
Psalm 37:4 promises, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” This doesn’t mean God grants every desire, but it does mean he honors the holy desires he placed in you. A longing for marriage and family is not a flaw—it’s a gift that reflects his design for companionship.
Think of your life like a book still being written. Some characters appear early, while others don’t enter the story until later chapters. Just because your spouse hasn’t appeared in chapter one doesn’t mean they won’t show up in chapter five. The Author is still writing.
Waiting doesn’t mean denial. It means God is weaving your unique story, one that may unfold later than you imagined but will still be good and purposeful.
4. If the Pain of Wanting a Relationship You Don’t Have Is Tempting You to Give Up Wanting a Relationship at All, This Is a Sign God Is Saying, “Don’t Give Up Hope for Your Future Marriage”
Sometimes the desire for marriage feels so painful that you may want to shut it off completely. You may think, “If I stop wanting it, I won’t be disappointed.” But God doesn’t ask us to bury our desires; He asks us to entrust them to Him.
Romans 8:25 encourages us, “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” True hope is not pretending we don’t care; it is believing God can still bring good from what we cannot yet see.
When you run from pain and isolate yourself from getting hurt, you are also running from love and isolating yourself from finding the person God wants you to marry one day.
Instead of giving up on your desire, bring it before the Lord. Pray honestly, cry out when it hurts, and trust that he hears you. God is not cruel; he doesn’t give us desires just to torment us. He gives them so that in his timing, they can be fulfilled in ways that glorify him.
Your story is not over. As Lamentations 3:25 says, “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.”
