The Gift of Joy

My friend sent me a podcast yesterday entitled “The Gift of Joy: Accepting what G Has Given.” This podcast really ministered to me. She had no idea when she sent it that it was exactly what I needed to hear. You see, (and I am being very vulnerable here) I have really been struggling recently with being single. I have been longing for marriage-- for companionship. I have not been content lately and in turn have not been joyful.

The podcast was an interview with Elisabeth Elliott. What she said was an encouragement and a challenge to me at the same time. She quoted the verse in Psalm 16 that says, “Lord you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.” Elisabeth says that life is a gift from G. She would go as far as to say that marriage, singleness and even widowhood is a gift from Him. He has assigned us our portion. The question is am I OK with that? Am I secure in that--knowing that He has assigned me my portion and my cup? I can honestly say that recently this has been a real struggle for me.

Elisabeth Elliott said, “Too many young people have the idea that marriage is a right and if G doesn’t give me this, then he’s cheating me which is exactly what Eve thought in the Garden of Eden. She wanted what was not given. The one and only thing that G had withheld was the one and only thing that she was absolutely determined to get. And she got it and along with it, sorrow and death and destruction and all the rest.”

I have to admit that I have at times thought that marriage is a right. I have at times felt like He has been cheating me from something wonderful. I have not been joyful and secure in the place that he has assigned to me. I, like Eve, have wanted to take what has not been given to me.

Lately I have pleaded with G to either allow me to get married or take my desire for marriage away. It has not happened yet. I know that desiring marriage in a godly desire and yet I have struggled recently with why this has not happened for me. Read what the interviewer asked Elisabeth and see her response.

Bob: There are single women listening in their 30’s and in their 40’s wondering about their gift of singleness and wondering if someday G will take the desire they have for marriage away. Will he do that?

Elisabeth: Very likely not. And I point them to Deuteronomy 8. In Deuteronomy 8, Moses is reviewing the history of the children of Israel and he says, “He suffered you to hunger in order that he might know what was in your heart.”

And you remember that the children of Israel were wailing and screaming and complaining because they didn’t have the leeks and onions and garlic and watermelons and fish that they’d had back in Egypt and they were sick and tired of this stuff they got every day, manna. And it says that a company of strangers came in and said in effect, “Is this all you’ve got here?” You know, and so instead of the Lord removing the desire for leeks and onions and garlic, he caused them to hunger for this purpose that he might know what was in their hearts.

And I don’t know any situation in which we are more likely to find out what is really in our hearts than where we have been deprived of something that we thought we should have. And, of course, I was deprived of my husband Jim and the L was saying to me, “Now I want you to glorify me as a single woman again. And I’m giving you this gift and I want you to fulfill this calling faithfully, gladly and humbly.”

I do desire to glorify G as a single woman. I often struggle with this because, I like the children of Israel, am not content with the place he has me in at the moment. I desire that he would take me out of the situation. I get frustrated because I think he is depriving me of something I think I should have.

This article helped give me a little attitude check. It helped me to see that I need to strive to be content and joyful in the place that He has me in right now. After all, G does indeed know what he is doing!


If you want to listen or read the entire podcast, you can at http://www.familylife.com/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=dnJHKLNnFoG&b=3789887&ct=7323121. The article was not only for women...it applies to men as well.