1 Timothy 2:1-6(NLT)
“1 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. 2 Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. 5 For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity–the man Christ Jesus. 6 He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.”
The Apostle Paul encourages believers to pray for everyone in this passage because it’s good and not only does it please God, but the world, our nation, and our community at large benefits from our prayers. God’s heart is that everyone will come into the knowledge of the truth, so that their sins can be cleansed by the blood of the lamb through salvation, and they can live free, quiet and peaceful lives. It’s not hard to see that the world we live in today is far from this reality. Humanity is growing further and further away from God. He sees it, and we can feel it, but our prayers must never cease.
As God’s daughters, we should consider the possibility that the man that will be our future husbands may not presently have the kind of relationship with God that he should. He may be struggling in some area of his life, or he may not know about the reality of Jesus Christ and the salvation he offers. Even in our own lives, we understand that things have not always been easy. We’ve endured tribulations and troubles with no one but the Lord on our sides. It’s been tough at times, and we must consider what it is like for someone that doesn’t lean on God’s love, strength, and power the way that we do. We must have a measure of compassion, patience, and understanding, and we should be praying that we will demonstrate the love of Christ and be the light our husbands need.
Psalm 100:3(NLT) tells us, “Acknowledge that the LORD is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” We can rejoice continually because we know that the Lord is God, and He is everything to us. Our lives have a firm foundation to rest on because we trust in the knowledge of who our Heavenly Father is. We owe Him continual praise for His goodness, because He cares for us as the sheep of His pasture. This is our undergirding, the support for all that we are and all that we will ever attempt to do in this life and the next. There’s no depth deep enough to measure the blessing of being saved and knowing God. This should provide us a lens for visualizing the challenging existence of someone that isn’t or doesn’t know how to live fully by faith in Him.
Ephesians 3:19-20 (NLT) says, “19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. 20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” Through the Apostle Paul, God makes it clear that the love of Christ makes us fully complete, and this love has power that can only come from God. This same power that works in and through us, allows us to have influence in the lives of those around us. And it’s entirely possible that our future husband is the person God expects us to influence the most.
When we allow God’s power to be at work within us, He will accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. He works through our faith, our prayers, our willingness to be the light He has called us to be. A commitment to pray for the salvation and spiritual growth and maturity of our spouses or future husbands must be our habit pattern. As single women that are desiring marriage, sometimes this level of commitment is absent in our minds and hearts. We may be thinking only of our own needs, but God requires that we put Him first, and think about His desire that our husbands are saved and know the truth.
We must acknowledge the reality that many single men were raised in homes where respect and honor for God was not taught. They may come from cultures that do not embrace the love of Jesus Christ, but it’s God’s Will for him to be saved, and you may be the conduit for this to happen. Begin now to pray for your future husband’s relationship with God. Pray also for the opportunity to pour the love of God into his life in a way that intimately reveals your own reverence for our Heavenly Father. Pray that you are growing and maturing in all the ways that will make you ready to minister in the role of your future husband’s sister in Christ and his wife, because this is good, and it will please God. ■
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.
“This is Good and Pleases God”, written by Kim Times, edited by Fran Mack and KLizzie for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2024. 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.