Impatient vs. The time is now

Another week, another month, another year goes by and you still haven’t found “the one”. Living as a single Christian in a world obsessed with finding love can so easily feel like being stuck. We start to believe that our life will only truly begin when we find our partner and can start to serve God in a new, better way. The impatience takes up so much space in our heads, suddenly our jobs seem less important, our friendships aren’t enough and the urge to move church, city or even country in pursuit of a partner starts to appeal.

But Paul has good news for us here, good news for those of us who are waiting for a new beginning. As a ‘prisoner for the Lord’ Paul is physically trapped, hoping that he will be released. Yet, even in such “stagnant” conditions, he shows us that a fruitful spiritual life is always possible for Christians. There is nothing on earth that we must wait for in order to live for God. In fact, the only true period of waiting is the Church’s waiting for Jesus to return.

By Paul’s example we can trust in two things: that a full, Christian life begins right now, wherever we are and that everything happens in God’s perfect timing. So what does this mean for you? It means that your married Christian friends are no further “forward” than you, they are not more loved or more blessed. It means that God has held you in your singleness for a good and wonderful purpose. It means that it’s time to make a change: stop longing for the future and start serving in the present. Over the next week we will face, head-on, the lingering anxieties of singleness which hold us back from living for God, right now.

Action points:

1. Praise God that wherever you are, whoever you are, He loves you and He wants you to serve Him.
2. Pray that your heart and mind would be soft to letting Him work in you, letting him change your perspective.