You Never Know

We all have had times when we honestly do not know how things will turn out. We have our hopes, our expectations and even our best case and worse case scenarios. But every once in a while, we are clueless as to what lies around the corner.

These periods of uncertainty occur for Christian singles as well. Whether the questions we face have to do with marriage or true romance or financial security or sexual satisfaction or lifelong friendships, we REALLY don’t know how things will turn out. For those of us who like to base their lives on clichés; the phrase “I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future” comes to mind. But seriously folks, haven’t you ever wanted God to let you in on some of the outcomes in your future?

To make matters worse, we often do not pay attention when people we interact with hint at uncertainties in their lives. We tell them, “God knows” or “You’ll be alright” or “He won’t put more on you than you can bear”. But when you know that you don’t know what the future holds, these phrases have the same impact of “Blah, blah, blah”.

Faith is about seeing the unseen and our feelings of anxieties about our future are a measurement of our faith. Just as we Christian singles should strive to increase our faith, we should do what we can to help strengthen the faith of others.

You never know what people are going through. But the first thing we can to help the faith of others is to pay attention and listen. People may not come out and directly say what they are struggling with, but if we listen to their words, we can detect clues concerning their situation.

Once we “hear” what the person is saying, let’s avoid dumping clichés at their feet and let’s stop blowing them off with useless and trite sayings. Instead, let’s truly feel their pain, especially since their pain is very much like our own.

Next, let’s not let our prayers for others be the last thing we do for them. Let’s encourage them. Let’s inquire about their progress. Let’s roll up our sleeves and help them.

By doing these things; Christian singles can be a great source of growth when it comes to our faith and the faith of others. Because we are human, we will have anxieties about the problems and challenges in our lives. But the feeling of uncertainty is not really the problem. Rather, the problem lies in the fact of how we allow that uncertainty to weaken our faith. So before we become overwhelmed by the lack of visible clues to how things will turn out, let’s turn our attention to helping others increase their faith. By helping others, you also will end up helping others. God is still in the blessing business even when we fear that business has gone bankrupt. That fact should keep us going even when we really don’t know.