**During the month of January, we will be reposting some of the top posts from 2023. We hope these will encourage you and connect to your heart. Stay tuned for all new posts coming in February 2024!
“Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say upon the Lord.”
Psalm 27:14
I remember it like it was only yesterday. It was 2001 off the coast of Greece. Dressed in a formal aqua gown, I was watching the moon reflect upon the ocean. There is just something so magical about watching the moonlight dance upon the water. It was if the Lord had made this evening just for me. It was like a dream. I felt like a princess that was being blessed by her King.
As I was thanking the Lord for this incredible season of my life, I’ll never forget the thoughts I pondered in my heart that beautiful evening. “It feels like I should have a husband sharing in this beautiful moment, yet I am alone with you Lord, and I’m ok with it.”
He gently spoke to my heart and said, “What if it was you and I always?”
I was not expecting such a question from the Lord-In fact, I was a bit shocked. A life of singleness? What would that even look like? I mean, I was ok then, but what about the future? How long would “always” be? In that moment I honestly believed God was giving me the opportunity to say “yes” to His plan and “no” to mine.
Instantaneously the Lord spoke to my thoughts! “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
When that word came, peace flooded my heart. I knew if this was his plan for me, it would be better than any plan I could have had for myself. I made up my mind at once that I would surrender this part of my life to Him. “I will remain single if that is your plan… because your ways are higher,” I told the Lord. “It will be you and I for a while,” He said. It was such a sweet, intimate moment with my Lord. His words were so very clear, as if he was standing right next to me. As Jesus called His disciples on the sea of Galilee to follow him, here I was, on the Aegean Sea, being invited to follow Him into a season of waiting and into the unknown.
The years came and they went. I went from that young “20’s girl” on the ship to a “late 30’s woman” feeling as if life had passed her by. People eventually stopped asking me if I ever wanted to get married. The struggle was real. I was challenged every year that passed to accept being single for the unforeseeable future. However, every year was not always a struggle. God filled many of those years with wonderful opportunities to serve others, travel to far off places, and fall more in love with Him. Those years were not wasted years and I will always treasure them.
Sadly, at times, I thought I knew better than the Lord and paid the consequences for my disobedience. When I lost hope, he restored it by bringing me back to the truth. Here are a few scriptures I would cling to in those years…
Uphold me according to your word and do not let me be ashamed of my hope.” Psalm 119:116
“They shall not be ashamed who wait for me” Isaiah 49:23
“In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15
“My soul waits silently for God alone, for my expectation come from Him.” Psalm 62:5
Susanna Spurgeon said it best when she wrote… “I wait for the Lord, blessed master, I thank you for my waiting times. They are times of love and favor. They draw me nearer, closer, more urgently to your feet. Your delays are not your denials. When you seem slow to answer prayer, it is but to make me more eager for mercy, or to teach me to ask with greater confidence, that you may gather up your blessings to bestow them exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think. “
Amy Carmichael, a single missionary to India said, “If you refuse to be hurried and pressed, if you stay your soul on God, nothing can keep you from that clearness of spirit which is life and peace.”
22 years have come and gone since that special evening on the sea. I have now been happily married to a wonderful man for the last 5 years and mother of one little girl and a boy on the way! If I had chosen to give in to the lies when the wait seemed longer than I had expected, I don’t know where I’d be today. If I didn’t have all those years of singleness, I don’t know who I’d be today. God’s ways are higher, even when it doesn’t make sense. You can fully trust what he’s asking of you.
Whether you are single for a season or for life, God has the absolute best path for you. We are not all promised wedding bells, and that is ok! God has called you to something much better than you could have ever think, asked or dreamed (Ephesians 3:20). My sisters, If the wait has been longer than you expected, trust that God’s got a plan. Walking in step with Him brings greater fulfillment more than anything else. Beloved, whatever it is you may be waiting on, you will always regret rushing in, but you will never ever regret waiting on the Lord.
“The Lord knows the way through the wilderness, – all I have to do is follow and to put my hand in his hand, and He holds me.”- Corrie Ten Boom
We want to thank Julie Posey for sharing this post.
Women's Ministry 
I love this so much!!