This week, I have been distracted from my walk with God by my desire to have a girlfriend that would eventually turn into my wife. There have been days where I have been jealous of people who are in relationships and/or are married. Much of my thoughts have been consumed with my desire to have a girlfriend. That made me wonder, "Am I going to be a single man for the rest of my life?" Here I am looking at singleness as a bad thing. In a stroke of curiosity, I went to the Bible for answers. And this is what God showed me.
God revealed to me some key people in the Bible who were never married. One of those people was Paul the Apostle. God made Paul to never marry so that Paul could focus on serving God. Paul devoted the time from his conversion from Saul of Tarsus to the day he was killed advancing the Gospel and serving God with every ounce of his being.
Paul never whined to the Lord "Why don't you ever give me a wife?" In fact, Paul saw his singleness as a gift from God. Delving more and more into the Bible, I am beginning to see why Paul saw his singleness as a gift.
It's no secret that relationships require a sacrifice of time and parts of one's life. I have learned firsthand through my last relationship (if you can call it that) that if you never spend time with your significant other and you hardly ever talk to them, the relationship is done for. God never gave Paul a wife because He had other plans for Paul. With no wife and children occupying his time, Paul devoted his whole life, every minute of every day serving and loving God. God did this to allow Paul to write almost half of the books of the New Testament.
This is awesome. Imagine if God did give Paul a wife. There would be a very short New Testament if there was even one at all. Through the words God spoke to Paul, we as Christians learn how to love God and people more.
An example of a verse from a book that Paul wrote is 1 Corinthians 13:13. 1 Corinthians 13:13 says "Three things will last forever--faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is love." Through this verse, we learn that love is the best thing we can have and that love triumphs over everything.
Through 1 Corinthians 13:13, God teaches us that we should love people. Love can take different forms. Perhaps it is to sit and talk with someone who is having lunch by themselves. Perhaps it is holding the door open for someone as you enter a building. Maybe it is to give a compliment to someone you don't know. You never know what people are going through in their lives. They could be thinking about ending their lives. Be the reason why someone doesn't commit suicide. Love is powerful and love is excellent. Love is refreshing. Love is uplifting.
Thinking about this verse and the Bible in general, I have realized that I don't have to have a girlfriend to experience love. Love is present in my relationships with my family and friends. I see love when my brother from another mother, Manny, hugs me and asks me about my day. I see love when my nieces, Clarissa and Scarlette, hug me and kiss me. I see love when my mom hugs me after I come home from college.
The most important love I need right now is the love from God. I want to fall so in love with God that the idea of not having a girlfriend or a wife doesn't sound like a burden. After all, if you don't love God, how can you expect to love someone else? God is love. My prayer for the world is to love and know God.
