She Asked for One Boyfriend
One day when Cheryl was 21, she asked the Lord why she couldn't have a husband to look after her. He spoke with startling clarity: "I can take better care of you than any man ever could."
That was a revelation! But being human and slow to learn, she didn't walk away instantly content. Though she had never been desperate to get married, the desires were still there, and she could not stop dreaming. In her early thirties, she told the Lord: "You know, God, I'd just like to date someone neat for awhile. I don't have to get married. It doesn't even have to be a long term relationship; maybe a few months. I just want to feel normal."
Someone "neat" did eventually ask her out. For awhile their relationship flared, then died after three months with barely a whimper when they found they were not each other's soulmate. She realized the Lord had given her exactly what she had asked for.
One day she opened her Bible to Isaiah 54. Cheryl was particularly struck by verse one. The unmarried woman is told to rejoice. She is to enlarge the place of (her) tent and "stretch out the curtains" because her children will be more than she who has born physical offspring. She felt the Lord saying that because of the freedom her singleness gave her, she would be able to see many spiritual children born into His Kingdom.
Verse 5 adds "thy Maker is thy husband." She remembered God's promise to her years earlier that He would take better care of her than any man ever could.
The Lord seemed to tell her that despite past rejection and struggles, He will make her truly beautiful. He will protect her and guide her in her walk with Him and will give her victory (vss. 11, 14-17).
Thank You, Father, that we never need to be lonely. Your presence and promises are always enough.
"For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11).
Prayer Request
Please pray for those who are preparing new discipleship materials to be presented at the conference.
