Some Thoughts on Singleness – Part 2

I believe it’s important to make one thing particularly clear: an unmarried person need be no less complete in their personal identity, and no less spiritually covered, than a married person. Our completeness in God, and the extent of His protection over our lives, are a consequence of our covenant relationship with Him within the Body of Christ, not dependent on our conjugal state.

Marriage brings a special and very intimate relationship with another person of the opposite sex, providing a new place of God’s spiritual covering, not least through His intended order between a husband and wife. However, it’s not what Jesus has planned as the ultimate fulfilment of our earthly lives. He was the most complete man ever to have walked the earth, experiencing all the normal human desires, but he remained single.

Sometimes singleness has become wrongly sealed in people’s lives through the wounding of abuse, the fear of intimacy, the unresolved pain of previous betrayals, an imagined gift of singleness, or occasionally through pronouncements and curses coming from themselves or others, including forbears. It’s good for single people to forgive those who’ve spoken out or acted towards them in opposition to God’s ordinance for marriage, also confessing unhelpful personal fears and attitudes. This opens the door to all that God has prepared for their lives.

For those walking in singleness, but retaining a desire for marriage, there will often be pain associated with loneliness, disappointment, the unfulfilled hope for sexual intimacy and parenthood, and often a sense of isolation even within the church. Jesus understands all these difficult areas. He asks those troubled by such issues to place their singleness fully into His hands, seeking God’s perfect plan for their comfort, fruitfulness and fulfilment of destiny.

Prayer: Father God, I ask that You give encouragement today for those in any way troubled by their singleness. Lead them, Lord, through their needs for healing and keep them secure on a pathway of peace. Amen.