Prayer Singles Who Are Wanting To Be Married

Why Does God Wait to Answer Prayer?

Why would God wait to answer our prayers?  Wouldn’t we expect that since God is all-powerful that He would answer immediately?  What is the purpose for God’s delaying our prayer requests?

Outside of God’s Will

One reason that God may not answer our prayers or that He waits is that we are asking for the wrong thing.  We may be asking for something that is not in God’s will for our lives and we might be asking for selfish reasons.

  James, the half-brother of Jesus wrote, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures”(James 4:3).

  For example, if we ask for money and we are not already giving to our local church or we have not been helping the poor, why should God give us more money so that we might spend it on ourselves?  Also, we might have the wrong motives in asking for something.

In the  Lord’s Prayer, we are to ask that His will be done on earth just as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10).   We know that God’s will for believers is to grow in grace and knowledge, so we can ask for spiritual understanding of His Word just before we read the Bible.

  There is confidence in praying when we know His will for out lives as it says in I John 5:14-15, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

  And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

We must remember to pray with faith.

Doubt

When we pray, we may have serious doubts about God’s ability or willingness to answer our prayer.

  James 12:6-7 indicates that if we pray in doubt, God will not honor our requests saying, “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”  God may be waiting for us to pray in real faith, in expectation of receiving an answer, or to see if we are serious enough to continue to pray for it.

Sin Stops Prayer From Being Answered

God will not answer the prayer of a believer if they are in a state of perpetual, unrepentant sin (I Pet. 3:12). Psalm 66:18 is clear that “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

“ If we are obedient, He will hear our prayers (John 15:7) but if we are unforgiving, He will refuse our petitions before His altar (Matt. 18:35).

  Matthew 5:24 is says that when we fail to forgive others, this is cause for a failed request for His help, “leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”

Prayer is Answered in God’s Timing

God also expects us to wait patiently on His perfect timing (Psalm 66:18).  In Hebrews 10:36, “For you have need of patience, that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.

” The minor prophet, Habakkuk speaks for all of us when he grew impatient in waiting for God to answer his request in 1:2, “How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?”  I can most certainly identify with Habakkuk in his sentiments.

  Psalm 37 is a great Psalm to read when you are seeking the desires of your heart with the realization that it may take some time. Read these key verses from Psalm 37 on waiting:

7  “Rest before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not worry when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.“

25  “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.”

34  “Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.”

Sometimes the desires of our heart take time.  They do not happen overnight.  God is most often at work when He appears to be the most silent.

  Even though Daniel had to wait three weeks before his prayer was answered, God had actually answered his prayer that very day that he prayed.

  Daniel had his prayer answered the very same day of his request but it took three weeks for God’s sovereign timing for it to reach him – and it did at exactly the right time, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them”(10:12).

Stories of Waiting For Prayer To Be Answered

Don’t ever give up on praying.  God shows us that persistence pays off in Luke 18:1-8, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.  He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.

  And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused.

But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.

  And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?  I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.

However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”  The point of this parable is that if we continue steadfastly in prayer God will honor that persistence.  Never give up on praying because God may be waiting to see if it is important enough to us to continue in prayer, day and night, day after day.

I heard the story of a faithful mother who had been praying for 28 years for her son to come to faith in Christ.  Year after year her son was rebellious.  He abused drugs, was in and jail, and showed no signs of ever knowing Christ.

  The days and years dragged on with absolutely no indication that there was anything different in the man‘s life.  Then one day, 28 years after his mother first prayed for him, this man came to a saving faith in Christ.

  What if this mother had given up?  What if she decided it was not important enough to keep praying each and every day?  What a difference this mother made in her steadfast prayers due to her undying love for her son.   Today her son is making an eternal difference for others in prison.  This was all due to prayer.  Even though she had to wait

Another article you might be interested in:

Does God Answer The Prayers of Unbelievers?

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Источник: //www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/why-does-god-wait-to-answer-prayer/

Prayer To Find a Husband or Wife (with PDF Prayer Guide)

Are you single and not sure how to pray to get married? Do you need prayer to find a husband or wife–or maybe you need to pray for yourself to find a spouse, but you aren’t sure how to do so?

I do pray for all my readers who are single and desire to be married. But, even more, I desire to equip YOU to pray for your future spouse and marriage with confidence, knowing that God really DOES want you to be married if you want to be.

To assist you in your prayers, I wanted to share a model prayer with you that is much the way I prayed when I was asking God to send me my own husband.

First, rest assured that God’s Word does promise you a spouse of your own if you want one

Not everyone is required to have a spouse. Some people have a special ability to stay single and enjoy it. The apostle Paul had this gift, and he said it allowed him to focus more on the Lord.

However, marriage is still a VERY good thing. Marriage–between one man and one woman–is the very first institution that God created. He set Adam, the first husband, together with Eve, the first wife, in Genesis chapter 2.

Why?

Because He said:

… “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him” (Genesis 2:18).

So even though the apostle Paul wrote about his special ability to stay single and enjoy it, he was an unusual case. GOD said at the very beginning that it is not good for man to be alone … so He invented marriage.

Therefore, know this: if you desire to have a husband or wife of your own, it IS God’s will to give you one!

Источник: //www.fromhispresence.com/pray-this-prayer-to-find-a-husband-or-wife/

Why You Should Keep Hoping for Marriage

It wasn’t her words that caught me off guard. It was the way in which she said them. Resigned cheerfulness. “Well, I’m glad I won’t have children,” she said lightly, taking a sip of coffee. “Too many things in the world to worry about.

God knows I couldn’t handle it.”

My single friend’s admission that she had already given up on having children — at age 31 — surprised me.

As we talked more, I realized something: Sometimes it’s easier to embrace an unwanted outcome than to keep hoping for God to fulfill long-held desires.

Around that same time, another single friend told me, “It hurts to keep hoping. Part of me just wants to give up on marriage and get on with making my life as good as possible without a husband.” I think a lot of singles feel this way. What does it matter if I want to be married if that’s never going to happen? I might as well quit torturing myself by hoping for it.

Hope Is Not Lost

I was 30 when I met my husband and 31 when I got married. In retrospect, that doesn’t seem very old to marry. But at the time, it felt as if I had been waiting forever. Some of my friends are in their late 30s and 40s and still unmarried; I can only imagine the temptation to pack up shop and embrace “Plan B” — life without marriage.

Here’s the thing: Giving up on a godly desire (when God hasn’t obviously taken that desire from you) is a form of escapism.

Rather than sitting in the pain of unfulfilled longings — continuing to hope that God will come through for you — you take the less painful route of “choosing” the alternative. It’s a way of taking back control — a defense mechanism of sorts.

We were created for hope. Scripture abounds with verses that entreat the believer to be filled with hope (Romans 15:13 is one example). It’s the reason a multi-billion dollar advertising industry exists. What do commercials offer us? Hope. When we quit hoping for a God-given desire, we deny a piece of how God created us and rob Him of the opportunity to glorify himself by meeting our needs.

Psalm 37:4 has become a sort of anthem for singles. It says, “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” To me, this verse always felt a little a spiritual performance test.

Was I still single because I was not delighting in Him enough? But I don’t think that’s the point.

The point is that a relationship with God in which I feel delight in Him leads to godly desires within me, the kind He wants to satisfy.

Voices of Hope

As I asked singles (and those who married after a period of extended singleness) about the benefits of keeping hope alive, answers ranged from, “It simply feels better” to “I don’t want to have regrets later” to “It’s attractive to others.” A few responses stood out to me. Here are their stories:

Alex

Alex struggled with his singleness throughout his 20s, suffering a rocky three-year relationship followed by a broken engagement. After that, Alex says God began reshaping his heart.

“Marriage was no longer something I refused to let go of,” he says. “It was really more of something I was seeking to trust the Lord in.

I never lost the desire to be married; I just had a greater desire to accept what God had for me.”

At 32, Alex met and married Laura. Now with a 1 year old and another baby on the way, Alex is thankful he chose hope. “When we kill our desires, we are really saying that we don’t want to trust God in the day to day. Having a relationship with Him can be much harder than giving up hope because it requires vulnerability and trust … trust that He really can satisfy our deepest longings.”

Jackie

In her early 50s, Jackie has had to wait a lot longer than anticipated for a spouse, but she still hopes for marriage. “I have been tempted to give up on the dream of getting married, especially as the decades tick on, but I hold on to hope because we serve a God who can do anything,” Jackie says. “His Word tells us ‘nothing is impossible’ with God. And I choose to believe it.

“As I’ve seen friend after friend get engaged, say ‘yes’ to the dress, and march down the aisle toward a brand new life, I’ve felt discouraged. But I hold on to the hope that God’s way is perfect, His timing is perfect, and He is totally in control. The One who loves me most, God Almighty, is sovereign, and He will bring it to pass if it’s His best will for me.”

Michelle

Michelle, who is in her early 30s, feels ready for a spouse. “Culturally, I think we tend to go one of two directions: desperation or giving up,” she says. “But God is a God of hope, and to give up on hope just because we can’t see the next step is actually giving up faith.

“If we give up our hope in finding a partner, then we are ly going to quickly give up hope in other areas of our lives. Not losing hope is a spiritual discipline. I’ve also found that as I press on, my view of what marriage is about has developed into a more mature and selfless desire rather than simply not wanting to be alone.”

Ashley

Ashley is a newlywed. “Being single into my 30s seemed one long string of disappointments,” she says. “So holding onto the hope that marriage was still possible and that God would provide a husband did not come easily. What did come easily was cynicism. To protect myself from disappointment, I turned the very real hurt of singleness into a joke or a sarcastic comment.

“But cynicism didn’t help the pain in my heart. And it certainly didn’t make me any more attractive to the guys in my life.

So as I entered my 30s, I made the conscious decision to remain hopeful and to fight for hope even if it meant I would be disappointed or might die still waiting for a spouse.

I knew it wouldn’t always be easy or fun, but my prayer was that God would give me the strength to remain hopeful.”

Choosing Hope

As I entered my 30s without a boyfriend in sight, I also chose hope. It was a daily decision.

I often reminded myself of Romans 5:5, which says, “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

” I didn’t have to worry about appearing foolish as I hoped for marriage. Not only that, but I had a close, personal friend to help me: the Holy Spirit.

I have met older single women who are bitter and filled with regret over what might have been. I have also met single women of the same age — Jackie — who are filled with joy, peace and hope.

But at times it may feel the painful, all-night wrestling match Jacob had with God for a blessing (Genesis 32:22-32).

Alex points out another advantage to hoping in the midst of disappointment: “The pain of longing for what we desire should only push us to Christ and remind us of the ultimate glory of who He is and what we are promised in Him.”

That’s why hope is worth fighting for. And it’s a beautiful fight.

Copyright 2015 Suzanne Gosselin. All rights reserved.

Источник: //www.boundless.org/adulthood/why-you-should-keep-hoping-for-marriage/