God Wants You to Look for “The One” in a New Place If . . .

Sometimes God leads people to enter into a more proactive dating season. When this happens, God will also often lead that person to explore new social settings and environments as a way of meeting new people and possibly their future spouse.

If you are wondering if that is you, here are 4 signs to look for that could help bring some clarity.

1. If You Have Thoroughly Exhausted All Your Current Dating Options, This Is a Sign God Could Be Leading You to Explore New Places

A basic principle in life is that if you want different results you have to take different actions. If we keep doing the same things over and over again, going to the same places over and over again, meeting the same people over and over again, it is not logical to assume we will get different results.

Remember, if Ruth never left Moab in Ruth Chapter 1 to go to Bethlehem, she would never have met Boaz in Ruth Chapter 2. Just like Ruth, sometimes you need to travel somewhere new to meet your future husband or wife.

2. If There Is a Viable Option You Haven’t Tried Before That Has Worked for Many Other Christians Who Are Now Married, This Could Be a Sign You Should Try This Too

One sign of humility is to accept that you and other people are not so different. Yes, we are all unique in many ways, but in pride we can often refuse to try things that many other people have tried and have found success with. “That may have worked for other people,” we whisper to ourselves, “but that could never work for me.”

Humility, on the other hand, says something like, “Well, my problems are not that special. Many other people have experienced what I am experiencing. Perhaps I can learn from others to see what they did to find success.” As Proverbs 13:20 states, “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise . . . .”

3. If You Are Constantly Orbiting Your Ex, This Is Probably a Sign God Wants You to Explore New Places to Meet Someone

One of the easiest ways to keep new relationships from happening in your life is to keep associating yourself with someone you used to date. When other singles see you around your ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend, they will naturally assume you two still have feelings for one another and thus they will keep their distance out of respect.

I rarely recommend people switching churches unless there is a serious biblical issue going on. But if you were in a serious relationship with someone at church and now you constantly see each other still, this could be a valid reason to switch churches so you can heal and truly move on with someone new.

If you only dated this person for a short time, however, I would not recommend switching churches. With time that awkwardness will probably go away. But if the relationship was very serious there might be no other option but to leave that church.

4. If You Feel Like God Is Telling You to Be More Proactive But You Are Not Sure What to Do, Start By Exploring New Social Settings and Places

A change of scenery is probably the easiest and most effective way to increase your chances of meeting someone new. Most people meet their future spouse by simply living a normal and socially active life. The more people you meet in natural settings, the more likely you will end up meeting the person God wants you to marry one day.

God will lead some of you to try other methods like online dating, blind dates, or single’s events at church. But for most people you just need to meet more Christian singles and you will naturally get into a romantic relationship with someone. God made men and women to be attracted to one another, so the more singles you meet from the opposite sex, the more probable it is that you will meet someone you form a connection with.

When Abraham was trying to help his son find a wife, he followed this very idea of looking somewhere different to get a different result. Genesis 24:2-4 states:

And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, ‘Put your hand under my thigh, that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.’” 

Abraham wisely helped his son marry the right woman God had for him by looking for her in a different place. But if Abraham would not have done this, Isaac may have never met Rebecca and fell in love with her (Genesis 24:67).