Text: Jeremiah 31:3-4
Recently, I was asked "why are you single?" Instead of giving him the death stare and the full-out long story. I simply said "the Lord knows what I need now is my maker and not a mate". It took a while for me to understand my reason for my singleness, but I am glad that I did. You see currently I am single because my heart isn't ready to receive such a blessing. This minor pause is my protection! The lord is allowing me to become whole again in order to be filled with his love. I mean how can I, at this moment, be a partner for someone when I am just becoming acquainted with who I am. It wasn't until recently where I realized my strengths and weaknesses. Although, I have so much growing to do I know that whatever is meant for me will never pass me.
You see the enemy will try to get you to stress about your relationships and whether you will meet that special person. He knows if he can get you to worry about the future, it robs the power of what God wants to do in you today. The power you need is not in what God has done in the past, though you should certainly celebrate that. It is also not in what you hope God will do in the future, though you can have confidence in that. The true power is what God, through Christ, wants you to become in the here and now. The more I started to dwell on the things the lord has yet to provide me, the more I forget about the things in which he has already given. I was forgetting all of the blessing the lord has bestowed upon me and during my singleness I became reacquainted with them. I finally understand that you can’t control the people who come into your life and how they respond to you, but you can control how you invest in becoming the person God wants you to be. I am currently focusing on me and where the lord wants to take me. Although, this journey has had its ups and downs I wouldn't change it for the world, because I have faith and confidence that what the Lord has promised me is coming.
Emi Valerio | Blog
May 14, 2017
May 7, 2017
The Purpose of Singleness Devotional: Week 1
Text: 1 Corinthians 7:34
What’s the point of singleness, anyway? I remember pondering this one night, not with any resentment towards God, but just with a genuine wonder as to why I was single. Through the prompting of the Spirit, I found that to answer this question, I had to embrace why I lived… We are made by God, and called to know and live for God. Yes, we know that not everyone lives for Him but this was His intention for mankind from the beginning: that men and women would glorify Him (see Isaiah 43:7). He is to be our purpose on earth. Once grasping this truth, it is much easier to navigate our single years, as well as understand their purpose: a time to serve Christ without reserve. 1 Corinthians 7:34 gives a very clear picture on what we are to do in singleness: “The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord.” I believe then that the purpose for being single is to obsessively tend to the things of Jesus and the ministry of the Gospel – to use this “free” season to serve Him undividedly in ways that we’d be unable to do in another season of our life. This is not to say that if were to get married later on that we would be unable to care about the things of the Lord or be unable to serve Him wholeheartedly (don’t misunderstand, ladies!). Married women are called to do the same, only in a differently focused way (i.e. a helpmeet to a husband). But the specialness about singleness is that we are God’s direct helpmeet – His very work is our own responsibility, and we are free to do it without limitations. An example of this is Amy Carmichael, a single Irishwoman who moved to India to be a missionary. She was entirely free to do God’s work that maybe others (wives and mothers) couldn’t do necessarily in their own God-given callings. But there came a point when Amy could no longer travel and preach the Gospel as she used to. Why? Because Amy became a “mother” to eight girls whom she rescued from Indian temples and her responsibility suddenly shifted from the radical work of a missionary to the simplicity of being “mother” to her adopted daughters. It wasn’t that Amy no longer cared for Jesus or ministering the Gospel; she did, but in a focused position to caring for these girls as He had called her to. We should remember this concept when considering the purpose of our singleness. Because we don’t yet carry the godly responsibility of marriage and motherhood, we are free, and should all the more seek to sacrificially pour out our lives into the work that wives and mothers are unable to do. This is what singleness in Jesus is all about: it’s being free from vocation but free enough for the ministry of Christ without distraction.
What’s the point of singleness, anyway? I remember pondering this one night, not with any resentment towards God, but just with a genuine wonder as to why I was single. Through the prompting of the Spirit, I found that to answer this question, I had to embrace why I lived… We are made by God, and called to know and live for God. Yes, we know that not everyone lives for Him but this was His intention for mankind from the beginning: that men and women would glorify Him (see Isaiah 43:7). He is to be our purpose on earth. Once grasping this truth, it is much easier to navigate our single years, as well as understand their purpose: a time to serve Christ without reserve. 1 Corinthians 7:34 gives a very clear picture on what we are to do in singleness: “The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord.” I believe then that the purpose for being single is to obsessively tend to the things of Jesus and the ministry of the Gospel – to use this “free” season to serve Him undividedly in ways that we’d be unable to do in another season of our life. This is not to say that if were to get married later on that we would be unable to care about the things of the Lord or be unable to serve Him wholeheartedly (don’t misunderstand, ladies!). Married women are called to do the same, only in a differently focused way (i.e. a helpmeet to a husband). But the specialness about singleness is that we are God’s direct helpmeet – His very work is our own responsibility, and we are free to do it without limitations. An example of this is Amy Carmichael, a single Irishwoman who moved to India to be a missionary. She was entirely free to do God’s work that maybe others (wives and mothers) couldn’t do necessarily in their own God-given callings. But there came a point when Amy could no longer travel and preach the Gospel as she used to. Why? Because Amy became a “mother” to eight girls whom she rescued from Indian temples and her responsibility suddenly shifted from the radical work of a missionary to the simplicity of being “mother” to her adopted daughters. It wasn’t that Amy no longer cared for Jesus or ministering the Gospel; she did, but in a focused position to caring for these girls as He had called her to. We should remember this concept when considering the purpose of our singleness. Because we don’t yet carry the godly responsibility of marriage and motherhood, we are free, and should all the more seek to sacrificially pour out our lives into the work that wives and mothers are unable to do. This is what singleness in Jesus is all about: it’s being free from vocation but free enough for the ministry of Christ without distraction.