Our Master Jesus said in Matthew 21:22(ESV), “And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” Every need and blessing are included in the truth he’s spoken in this verse. No good thing is left out, and he would not have told us this good news if it were not so. This should bring tremendous excitement and enthusiasm for those of us that believe in God’s Word, but many singles are still struggling to believe it. One of the reasons they struggle with it is because they are trying to have faith in themselves rather than faith in what God has spoken in Matthew 21:22. The faith of Jesus Christ isn’t about what you and I have done, it’s about what God has told us. Faith is being fully persuaded in what God has said about Himself. He fulfills His promises, and He is beyond confident in His ability to do so.
This same confidence must be in us. We must believe in God because He believes in Himself, and in His Word, He has told us exactly who He is. Romans 10:17(ESV) tells us, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” This is how faith swells within us, by hearing the truth of what God has spoken. If we believe any other thing than what God says, we will not be pleased with the results.
As a single woman praying to cross paths with your destiny partner, you may feel confused and sad because you’ve been single longer than you expected or wanted. You might even look to God and think He’s taking too long, but this is never the case. God’s timing is perfect! He never misses a beat or makes a mistake. He has designed the entire universe to cooperate with faith. Therefore, the question that a single person must ask is whether they are cooperating with faith. Because if they aren’t, stamina is lost, and momentum is greatly slowed down.
In Revelation 3:2(NLT), our precious Lord and Savior delivered a stiff warning to the church. He said, “Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God.” Many of us think to ourselves, “Whoa, Jesus is really getting after those people. They better wake up and do what he says.” We never think to ourselves that he’s speaking directly to us, but certainly he is. When we wait and wait and wait, and there’s no movement toward the fruition of our blessing, we can’t look at God. We must wake up and take a good, honest look at ourselves.
Ephesians 1:3(NLT) tells us that Heavenly Father has empowered us and blessed us with every spiritual blessing because of our union with Christ. Colossians 2:10 declares that we are complete in every way because the Spirit of Jesus Christ lives within us. This is the truth, and anything else that we’re believing that is contrary to our reality in Christ is not the truth. Jesus Christ commands us to strengthen our weak places, and in order to do this, we have to be real about what those places are.
We tell ourselves that we can’t do any more than what we’re doing to please God. “Surely God doesn’t expect more from me.” Well, He gave us His Son, which is the very best that could be given. We are totally free from sin’s grip because of Christ, and Philippians 4:13 tells us we can do all things through him. So, there’s no question we can do more, and our responsibility is to continually pursue God so we can receive His directives regarding what He requires of us.
When we don’t pursue God with this kind of diligence, our weak places become weaker, and we expect to be rewarded when we haven’t obeyed God and stripped off the heavy weights. Odds are that our weak places are keeping our blessing at bay. This isn’t something that should make us sad or angry. We should be ecstatic about it, because if the Master tells us we can wake up, guess what, we can wake up. If the Master tells us to strengthen what remains, then you better believe we can strengthen it. He wouldn’t tell us to do something that we’re incapable of doing. He is making it plain that our faith must be strengthened through living God’s Word.
To meet your husband, you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time. Do you think that you can orchestrate any of the machinations and maneuverings that it will require all by yourself? Absolutely not. You must have a certain level of spiritual maturity, humility, and discipline to move to this degree by the guidance of the Spirit. Faith is a spiritual substance that belongs totally to God. You and I don’t control it. Our responsibility is to grow in it. To get a greater understanding of how it grows, consider the example of my friend Tina. She’s an excellent cook, a mother of twins, choir member, best friend to three fabulous women, and a dutiful aunt who loves her family to pieces. Tina is attractive and works full-time. Anyone looking at her life from the outside would say she hustles every day to make her life work. Tina hasn’t had a significant relationship in three years. She’s very thankful for the blessings in her life, but she wants to be married. When one of her friends asked her why she believes she hadn’t found anyone, she replied, “I don’t know, but I’m going to keep praying.”
This sounds like a very humble answer, don’t you think? She very definitely should continue praying, but where’s the faith? And why doesn’t Tina know why she hasn’t crossed paths with her husband? Is it that God is withholding the answer? That couldn’t be because He instructs in James 1:5 that if we lack wisdom, we should ask Him, the Source of all truth. Could it be that with all that Tina has going on in her life, she hasn’t taken the time to renew her mind to what God has said in His Word and to pursue Him with her whole heart? Let’s look at this another way. What if Tina met a really nice guy, do you think that she would rearrange her schedule to spend time with him? Would she go all out to make sure she presents her best self? I think she would. I think she would do everything within her power to make space for this new guy.
But what about her relationship with God. Did she go all out for Him? Does she totally rearrange her schedule to pray and read God’s Word more? Is she pursuing God way more than she’d want the man to pursue her? You see, when God looks at our hearts, the answers to these questions are in high definition technicolor. Faith will always require God to be number one in our hearts, and we can’t fake it no matter how hard we try. If you want to know where your greatest focus should be as a single woman, God is it! And Jesus Christ tells us in Matthew 6:33 that when the Father is first in our hearts, all other blessings will be added to us. This is God’s promise, and He never breaks His promises.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
“Going All out for God’” written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2021. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!