If you feel like God has forgotten about your desire for a godly marriage, here are three biblical things the Lord may be saying to you.
1. If You Feel Like God Has Forgotten About Your Desire for a Spouse, He May Be Saying, “Pain Is Not a Sign I’ve Forgotten My Good Plan for You”
Psalm 56:8-11 (NLT), “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. My enemies will retreat when I call to you for help. This I know: God is on my side! I praise God for what he has promised; yes, I praise the Lord for what he has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid?”
Have you ever read through your journal from a few years ago? You will be surprised by how much you have forgotten. Even extremely painful moments will have slipped from your active memory. But God sees all of your pain and he never forgets it. He records all the tears we have shed throughout every moment of our lives. He even remembers the moments of sorrow that we have forgotten.
It’s hard for us to remember everything in our past and to see through the pain of our present because we are finite creatures who are bound by time and space. God, however, is not bound by time and space. He sees the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). Like Jesus who wept (John 11:35) with Mary and Martha over their brother Lazarus’ death even though he knew he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, never think that God is emotionally detached from your suffering even though he knows he has a good plan that you will see one day too.
Thus, if you feel like God has forgotten about your desires, just know he hasn’t. He is actually right there with you, comforting you in your pain. And not only that, he is not powerless to produce the plan you long for him to fulfill. Allow yourself to see through his eyes. He sees the end from the beginning. And while you may not know the specifics of his plan, you can trust that he does have a good plan for you (Philippians 1:6, Jeremiah 29:11).
2. If You Feel Like God Has Forgotten About Your Desire for a Spouse, the Lord May Be Saying, “This Delay Will Be Used to Accomplish my Purposes”
Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
As those of you know who have been following Christ, a delay is not the same thing as a denial. However, this truth still leaves us with the question, “Why is God allowing there to be a delay?”
Perhaps God is using this long season of waiting in singleness to give you the qualities needed to thrive in marriage. Maybe God is using this delay to give your future spouse time to get ready for marriage even though you are already prepared. Or perhaps the waiting is occurring to protect you from getting involved with the wrong people and so you can meet the right person with less relationship wounds.
We can’t be certain of the exact reason for the delay. And yet, we can be certain there is some good reason that will make sense once God fulfills his will for you. When you look back one day, you will then be able to see why it all had to happen the way it did.
Be faithful, no matter what, because God is faithful to you no matter what.
3. If You Feel Like God Has Forgotten About Your Desire for a Spouse, the Lord May Be Saying, “Don’t Be Blinded By Your Circumstances. Keep Your Eyes on Me”
Habakkuk 2:3, “For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”
Think of Abraham. God promised him a son, but when the circumstances seemed to contradict what God has promised, Abraham was tempted to take matters into his own hands. God didn’t use Abraham’s method of producing God’s promise. Instead, God did something that no one expected, giving him and Sarah a natural born child in their old age.
Likewise, never let the circumstances cause fear in you. As the old saying goes, FEAR stands for “False Evidence Appearing Real.” Faith, however, allows you to see the truth even when the circumstances seem impossible.
Habakkuk 2:3 reminds us that God’s timing is never off. The vision “awaits its appointed time.” When you think nothing is happening, everything is being aligned. God knows the right moment to unfold what he plans to do.
And when that moment comes, you’ll look back and realize: every closed door, every lonely night, and every unanswered prayer was part of the divine choreography that led you to the person the Lord has chosen for you.
