by Haley Williamson
Everything in society directs us toward marriage. Either something special will happen when you get married or perhaps you have to travel here or experience something magnificent.
But what about the people that God specifically calls not to get married?
The Bible says, “Then the word of the Lord came to me: ‘you must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place’, Jeremiah 16:1-2. In 1 Corinthians 7:8, Paul says, “Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: it is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am.”
Why does everything have to point to the direction of ‘when people get married’, when that might not be the path an individual is supposed to take? Throughout the Bible, there are examples of individuals who never got married, many who were called to live single lives: individuals such as Jeremiah, Paul, Daniel, Mary and Martha, the disciples and, of course, Jesus were all unmarried.
These were individuals from both the Old and New Testament that were either directly called by God to stay single, or God’s plan simply lead them through life being single by default. God used each of them in mighty ways. He took them where they were, without the pressure of having to get married and they were able to pursue God without that distraction. I am by no means saying that marriage is bad and everyone should be single; I just do not think that society and our culture should put so much emphasis and pressure on the idea of marriage as the end goal for everyone.
Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing, and perfect will.”
We’re living in a culture that is making it hard to trust God’s plan because each day we are told what to do, where to invest our hearts and how to live. This concept goes beyond marriage and understanding that God can call someone to be single their entire life.
It is all about trusting God to take care of every aspect of our life, and we can do that by looking at the way He worked and moved in the lives of those in the Bible.
Contact Haley Williamson at hwilliamson15@my.whitworth.edu