Singleness and Sweet Providence

It is well known to those who are dear to my heart that I yearn to be a wife and a mother. I am often frustrated by the stage of life that I am currently in. I desire to have a godly husband, but said man is not pursuing me. And what can I do? Sometimes it feels like nothing. Nothing. Sitting. Waiting. Becoming more and more frustrated. Where is hope? Is there hope? Oh my soul, rest. For your Father is sovereign! And he is good!

John Piper, in a sermon that has been beneficial and paradigm shaping, says, "A Christian woman does not put her hope in her looks. She puts her hope in the promises of God... She looks away from the troubles and miseries and obstacles of life that seem to make the future bleak, and she focues her attention on the soverign power and love of God who rules in heaven and does on earth whatever he pleases. She knows her Bible, and she knows her theology of the sovereignty of God, and she knows his promise that he will be with her and help her strengthen her no matter what. This is the deep, unshakable root of Christian womanhood. And Peter makes it explicit in verse 5. He is not talking about just any women. He is talking about women with unshahakable biblical roots in the sovereign good of God- holy women who hope in God."

Father, root my heart in the sweet truth of your sovereignty and your goodness!

Why can we have hope, dear women of God,

• When we yearn for a godly husband.
• While we wait to bear children.
• When our husband is not who we thought he was.
• When our friends desert us.
• When our bodies break down.
• When the children we have yearned for so desperately cause us far more pain than we think we can bear.

Do we have hope? Is there somewhere to turn?
Yes. Far more hope than we could have imagined. A safer rock than we could have wished. For we have God who is both sovereign and who is good.

He is sovereign. All things are in his control. Not a thing happens apart from his plan. It will often not look how we have desired, but God is working all things for His glory, and we find our highest happiness in the glory of God.


He is good. How do we know so? We look to the cross of Christ, and there we see that God has given up his only Son so that we may be justified, sanctified, adopted, glorified. He is the Father who gives us bread when we ask for bread, and not a stone. And we objectively know so when we look to the cross.


He alone will satisfy, and only fully in eternity. I continually forget this, that there will be no point in this life when I will be fully satisfied. There will be points of great joy - but those will only serve to point me to the fleeting pleasures of this life and to yearn for heaven. And God is kind, and allows us to experience satisfaction in Him and joy in creation in this life. Yet that deep yearning at the core of who I am will not be filled before I see my Lord. That is because He alone will fill that deepest desire. There are times when I am led to deep sadness knowing that I will likely carry 60 more years of yearning. Yet I can rejoice knowing that there will be a day, and there will be all of eternity, when I will be satisfied!