Jesus Christ said in Luke 12:48 (NLT), “When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.” All of us should have a particular fondness for this piece of wisdom from the lips of our beloved Savior in Luke 12:48. This verse is fundamental to our knowledge about how life works. It is the clay that forms our expectations. It’s elemental to our prayer lives because it allows us a view of God’s requirements and conditions. Many are praying to our Heavenly Father to cross paths with their future spouses. This meeting of two coming together for God’s purpose of becoming one is a very spiritual encounter, because we’re looking for God to position us in the right place at the right time. We desire much, yet we have not put ourselves equal to the requirement of being entrusted with much. It’s we who are blocking the blessing from coming in, and we have to change that.

We will never get around the reality that if change is what we want, we’ve got to be that change. The law is clear. We cannot get different results by doing the same things. Humans didn’t come up out of the blue with this wisdom about ‘doing the same, getting the same’. It’s not a concept that people created. God’s laws dictate the conditions upon which breakthroughs occur. His laws rule the entire universe, and He tells us that if we expect to increase our territories and expand our existences, we must level up. In other words, our level of accountability and responsibility must match or exceed the blessings we’re praying to receive.

This is especially important when it comes to the blessing of a spouse. God expects us to demonstrate that we have the love and capacity to welcome the treasure we’re expecting to receive. This is what the wait is all about. Love attracts, and when the love of God is deeply imbedded in our hearts, it broadcasts a signal loud and clear. The man that God has ordained for our lives is sure to pick it up. This is something that can’t be counterfeited, faked, or rushed. Some of us have a weak signal and we don’t want to admit this to ourselves. God is not withholding the blessing of marriage. We simply haven’t fully understood the conditions of Luke 12:48.

2Timothy 2:15 makes it clear that it’s our responsibility to do our very best to present ourselves before God as someone that He approves. We’re the ones that must do all we can to be a worker of God’s Word and rightly handle it. This is required to meet God’s approval. So, you see, according to God’s Word and Will, the single person doesn’t have time to be lonely, because the responsibility to God’s Kingdom is so great. The responsibility to His Kingdom matches the heft of what we’ve received through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1:3(NLT) tells us, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.” God is telling us that He has blessed us with every single spiritual blessing available to receive. This means we can operate on the level of Jesus Christ in everything we attempt to do, yet, many believers don’t walk in this, and we have to ask ourselves why. It isn’t because God hasn’t provided, it is because we have not changed our level of thinking and doing to line up with His provision. We haven’t recognized that the expanse of His giving must be met by the expanse of our actions and deeds in gratitude for all He has done.

Jesus Christ said in Matthew 6:19(NLT), “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal.” Well, what are treasures on earth? Treasures on earth are the worldly things that you and I have assigned great value, but in truth they are not valuable to our walk with Christ. These are treasures like designer name brands and all the material goods they’ve stamped their names on. We’re not really chasing the brand; we’re chasing the feeling of superiority we have when we wear the designer’s goods. Earthly treasures consist of anything that we deem important enough to go after. We invest our full effort and heart in these things and do so above the effort we apply to Kingdom pursuits.

Oh, God is watching what we do and how we do it. He knows that if we’re making worldly things our treasure now, we will do it when we get the husband as well, perhaps even more so. We may even drag him into what we’re doing and risk injuring his walk with Christ as well. So, this is business we would do well to attend to as soon as possible. We must be committed to closely examining what we’re treasuring and what we’re allowing to be stored up in our own hearts.

Earthly treasures cannot get us where we want to go. We can’t use them as fuel to propel us spiritually into marriage. Therefore, the change the single believer must make is to store up treasures in heaven. We must get on board with God’s agenda and do as Christ commands in Matthew 6:20(NLT), “Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.” We can’t store anything in heaven that resembles actions and attitudes of arrogance, apathy, selfishness, envy, laziness, and other kinds of negativity. We can only store those treasures that are achieved, acquired, and produced through God’s love, peace, joy, generosity, compassion, righteousness, and power.

So, we need to examine our actions, thoughts, attitudes, and deeds, because those things represent deposits into our treasury. If we continue to make our deposits on earth, we’re using the wrong bank. Those deposits will not meet God’s requirement because they prevent us from delivering the “more will be required” of Luke 12:48. We’ll continually live beneath our privilege approaching life that way. We must commit ourselves to sharpen our minds and expand our hearts with God’s truth. Our time in singledom must be well spent, laying up treasures for marriage and all that life holds for us according to the Will and plan of God.

God will always honor our commitment to prioritize our relationship with Him in the number one spot. Knowing this should motivate us to sit down and really take stock of where we are. We need to stop living re-actively and begin to live proactively. Be honest about the things that haven’t worked for you in your quest to be married to a Godly man. Some of us have made a habit of cancelling out our deposits through sinful behavior and bad attitudes. This must change. Be committed to store up treasures in Heaven. Let nothing steer you away from it. Make a closer walk in the Lord through His Holy Spirit a greater priority than walking down the aisle. When you do this, your marriage will be everything God wants it to be. ■

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.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

“Laying up Treasures for Marriage” written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.