There are many ways God calls us, but sometimes the journey of discovering God's call can be tough when we feel God may not be responding to our ponderings. This question, "Does want me to be single forever?" really tugs on my heartstrings because it carries a kind of sad bewilderment about God’s will and the course of one’s life. How many humans have despaired when their prayers for a partner, a mate, or a friend seem to fall on deaf ears! The person who submitted this question has been praying for a “God-fearing partner” and nothing has happened.
The conclusion sadly drawn is that God is just not listening, or worse yet, that God intends for them a lonely or loveless life. We feel the poignancy in their question and want to quickly reassure them and erase their loneliness by sending the loving person they seek. Infinitely more compassionate than us, surely God’s great heart must break to see us suffer.
Perhaps the real problem here is not the loneliness; that is a part of every human life at one time or another. Perhaps the real tragedy is the presumption that God is unmoved by our suffering, our struggles, our loneliness. In Isaiah we hear God say: “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will never forget you.” (Isaiah 49:15)
God is not outside our life, watching from a distance. God doesn’t sit by when our journey is an uphill climb—hoping we make it ok. God is simply not detached from us. Every human pain, fear, and heartbreak affects the heart of God as well. How do we know that? Because the ONE thing Jesus came to tell us is that God is LOVE. Love suffers when the Beloved suffers, weeps when the Beloved weeps, and rejoices when the Beloved rejoices.
Dear seeker, God does NOT want you to be lonely forever. That is NOT the plan. You must trust; you must trust God, you must trust love. Remember these words: “I know well the plans I have in mind for you, plans for your welfare, not for woe, plans to give you a future full of hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
