As a Christian, waiting on God to answer prayers can be one of the hardest things in life. You know that He has your best interest at heart, but at the same time, He doesn’t always answer in the timeframe you would desire. Praying for your potential spouse and marriage is no different. At times, it can be harder because matters of the heart are at play. You want to be patient, in the midst of trusting God…but patience can be a challenge. When He doesn’t move “quickly” your natural propensity is to help Him out, which is the last thing you need to do.

Don’t just wait on the Lord, Here are 7 things that singles can do while waiting for their prayers regarding marriage to be answered:

1. Live your life.

Too often, singles, especially Christian singles, put their life on hold “waiting” to meet their spouse. Your spouse’s arrival isn’t the time to start living; you should already be in the process of living your life to the fullest. You have endless possibilities awaiting you, take your life off hold and start LIVING!

Take your life off hold and start LIVING!

2. Focus on you.

Work on creating a better quality of life for yourself. Concentrate your efforts on aligning your desires with God’s will for your life. Seek God regarding His purpose and calling for your life and then make it a reality.  In the book of Ruth, Boaz, Ruth’s future husband, found her busy working. She wasn’t sitting around waiting for her spouse to find her. She was focused on the task at hand. While you are waiting for your spouse, focus on being about the Father’s business for your life.

3. Form or join a singles club.

The challenge with some singles is that they are sitting around stagnant feeling alone which causes their loneliness to intensify and their anxiety for a mate to increase. Alleviate your loneliness by forming a singles club with like-minded men and women who are also trusting God for their spouse. The purpose of this group is to form friendships, hangout, pray for one another and hold each other to a level of accountability. When you find people to do “life together” you are less focused on your singleness and more focused on enjoying life.

4. Get your financial house in order.

This is a great time to get your financial house in order by working on a debt elimination plan, implementing a budget, spending less and saving more. Also, find ways your money can work for you by evaluating your 401k investments and diversifying your stock portfolio. Increase your credit worthiness by examining your credit report and increasing your credit score. Your desire should be to be an asset and not a liability to yourself and your spouse.

5. Strengthen your relationship with God.

Many people have a fairytale image when it comes to marriage that once they get married life will be so much sweeter. It won’t. Marriage is a beautiful union, but it also requires work, humility, sacrifice, forgiveness, unconditional love and so much more. There will be times in a marriage when you don’t want to forgive your spouse or like your spouse very much. And it will take an act of God to help you move forward past this crossroad.

For these reasons and more, it is crucial that you begin to cultivate a time for prayer and communion with God daily. It will be during these times that God will give you the direction that you seek and the love you need to move forward in your relationship and life.

6. Prepare for marriage.

You prayed for marriage, but are you ready?  While awaiting your spouse’s arrival, allow God to begin to prepare you for marriage. In the Bible, the book of Esther details how Esther had to endure a beautification process for approximately a year, according to most scholars, just to meet with the King for marriage consideration. Although Esther’s process focused on an outward cleansing, surely an internal one took place as well.

Now if Esther had to endure a thorough detox, what about you? Think about all of the life experiences you have encountered. And the lasting effect that they’ve had on you, your life and your decisions. Are you emotionally and mentally healthy to enter into marriage?  Do you need an external and internal cleansing to remove the layers of hurt, pain, unforgiveness and issues of life out of you?  During this time, allow God to walk you through a process of healing and spiritual cleaning so that you can walk in the victory that He has in store for you.

7. Determine the type of marriage you want to have.

Outside of the marriage ceremony most people don’t understand what happens in marriage. However, the Bible gives a good blueprint for marriage.  But have you thought about or envisioned the Bible’s blueprint in your marriage?

For instance, what does “A man and wife should become one flesh” (Genesis 2) mean to you? What does that look like in your marriage? In Ephesians 5:22-23 it states that “Wives should submit to their husbands,” what does submission mean to you? How do you see submission being demonstrated in your marriage? These ,along with other key topics, need to be discussed before marriage.

Do you have an understanding of where you stand and your desires regarding these topics? If not, now is the time to determine your stance and be ready to communicate it lovingly and openly to your spouse to be.

As you can see praying for marriage is just the beginning, if you desire marriage this is the time to get your life in order and determine the type of marriage you desire.

BMWK – what are your thoughts on preparing for marriage? Do you agree that singles should prepare for marriage or just live their lives to fullest until it happens?  Let us know.