THE ROLE OF PRAYER IN FINDING A LIFETIME PARTNER – With thanks to Eveyln (8984) for this article

Pure Christian love is something everyone desires to find. It is a blessing which believers and non-believers crave to have. It is no doubt a beautiful thing. Pure Christian love rules the World. Many musicians have sung about love, poets have written poems about love in the past and they still continue to do so. Everyone in life desires to experience pure Christian love.

As believers, we understand that prayer is the master key because through prayer difficult doors can be opened and we can have answers to our desired requests according to God’s plan.

Mt 7:7-8 States ‘Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be open unto you. For everyone who asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened’.

Mt 7: 11 ‘If ye then , being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?’.

The above scriptures clearly tell us that if we ask anything from God it shall be given to us, and if we seek anything, we shall find it. This scripture can be applied to any area of our lives as well as the search for a life partner.

Before Jesus started his early Ministry, he fasted for 40days and 40 nights and he prayed during that time. Mt 4: 1-17 tells the story. Prayer preceded the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, so how much more should believers also pray before making serious decisions like choosing a life time partner.

Gen 24: 1-67 tells the story about Abraham and his desire to find a wife for his son Isaac. It also stated how he gave instruction to his eldest servant to go and find a wife for Isaac. Gen 24:12-15 specifically tells how Abraham’s eldest servant said a prayer asking for speed and God’s help in finding a wife for Isaac and before he finished his prayer, Rebekah who eventually became the wife of Isaac showed up. This is a good example of how prayer can facilitate the journey to finding a life partner.

Another example of the role of prayer in finding a life partner is found in Luke 6: 12-13 Here, we find how Jesus had spent time praying at night before he chose his 12 disciples.

The role of prayer cannot be overemphasised before embarking on serious journeys which also includes the choice of a life time partner.

From the scriptures considered so far, it can be seen that

• Prayer can give divine speed in finding a life time partner
• Prayer can also give divine direction on where to look to find a life time partner. Abraham’s eldest servant made a journey to find a wife for Isaac
• Prayer can give discernment to know who to approach to be your life time partner.
• Prayer can give favour to get approval from a potential life partner as well as the families involved.

My personal Experience

For many years, I prayed to God to give me the grace to find a suitable life partner but I also spent many years in education and my career and was not ready for the partner. I started dating in my mid-thirties because that was when I was available to start dating to find a life time partner but unfortunately all the men who came my way then were not right for me and I ended up heartbroken. I did not give up on the idea of finding a godly spouse. Deep within me I knew I wanted to be married, and based on my previous experiences I knew, I needed to be with a Christian who was God fearing. I did not know how to achieve that but that was my desire. I had tried many Christian online dating sites without a good result. It looked almost impossible because all the people who showed interest in me were not a good match. By this time, family and friends who cared about me had started asking when I was going to find pure Christian love and get married? It became an embarrassing situation because I was now in my late thirties. Remember, I only started dating in my mid-thirties due to being busy with my education and career.

The first thing I had to do having experienced many failed dates and broken relationships was to pray. I fasted for a long period of time for the purpose of finding the right person. It was now a priority and then one day, I went online looking for a Christian love and marriage agency and then came across FriendsFirst. I read about them and as it was a Christian introduction agency, I thought I would give it a go. I phoned their office to make enquiries and after the enquiries, I liked the sound of their services and immediately made up my mind I was going to join. A year later when I was financially ready, I joined FriendsFirst.

After joining I received many profiles and made some new friends along the way but still did not find someone special and since my membership was about to expire I started attending events and eventually started hosting events. That was when I met a man who first became my friend and after attending some other events, we began to talk and then realised we had something in common and decided to date. From the first date, we realised we had a good connection which was mutual and he decided he wanted to take things further with me and we did. Things got better for us each time we met. We both had interest in the things of God as well as career goals and became committed to each other from the very beginning. We had no interest dating others but just focused on each other. It was a genuine connection and true love and within 5 months of the initial meeting, we knew we had found the pure Christian love we both desired and decided we wanted to be married. We are now making our wedding plans and have set the date for our wedding.

This is our pure Christian love story. For me, prayer played a major role to know where to sign up and also positioned me to know what to do to find my spouse and God blessed my efforts.

Before we started dating each other, we were both not dating others so that enabled us to bond very easily and we both had a genuine interest in each other and were both emotionally healthy and ready for a relationship and so focused on each other.

We also practised faithfulness to each other from the very start when the connection was right and were both committed and so lost interest in others. That was why our love for each other grew.

This article is to encourage others to be prayerful in their journey to finding a lifetime partner and also practice faithfulness as soon as a genuine connection is established between both people and if it is mutual. You cannot force somebody to love you.

If you want to get God’s best in relationship, consider following God’s ways.

You cannot follow the ways of the world and get God’s will.

Remember, God’s ways are not our ways. His ways are higher