Guest Blogger Intro from Going Beyond on Vimeo.
*I’m so excited for you to get a chance to hear from Mandisa! Remember to comment below to enter to win a signed copy of her new CD, Overcomer (winners will be selected September 25). On the album she wrote a song to her future husband called “Praying For You” and this post gives you a little of the background! You can watch the music video on the bottom, Enjoy!
Priscilla
My friend Lisa Harper sometimes jokes that her future husband is lost and refuses to ask for directions! I’m convinced that my husband-to-be is hangin’ out with hers, and that they are aimlessly wandering around Nashville looking for us! LOL!
I used to pine away for marriage so much that I was missing many of the wonderful blessings associated with being single: my loving relationship with my bed (whom I have named “Rufus”…don’t judge me), being able to commit my time and money to whatever ministries, organizations, or people I desire, the freedom of whisking away on last minute trips on a whim, and most importantly, spending as much time with Jesus as I want!
While I am fully enjoying my single life, I was recently convicted by a sermon by one of my favorite preachers, Andy Stanley. In “The New Rules of Love, Sex, and Dating” part 1, Andy taught that rather than looking for “Mr. Right”, try focusing on becoming “Mrs. Right”. I’ve been very diligent in praying for my future husband (Psalm 112 is my go-to prayer guide for him). It’s kind of laughable that I had been so focused on making sure that he was the man God created him to be that I hadn’t given much thought to becoming the woman God created ME to be! After all, when I meet the man of my dreams, I certainly don’t want to be the woman of his nightmares!
So like Andy suggested, I am pursuing being a 1 Corinthians 13 kind of woman. I pray verses 4-7 often and ask God’s Holy Spirit to help me recognize opportunities to grow in these areas:
Lord, teach me to be patient and kind.
Help me to resist being envious or boastful.
Convict me when I brag or strut about.
May I detest being arrogant, rude, crude, indecent, self-absorbed, or easily upset.
By the power of Your Spirit, keep me from tallying wrongs or celebrating injustice; rather, may I always delight in truth.
Grant me the supernatural ability to put up with anything and everything that comes along.
Like You, Jesus, teach me to trust, hope, and endure no matter what.
Finally Father, I commit to your words in 1 Corinthians 13:13, “But now faith, hope, and love remain; these three virtues must characterize our lives. The greatest of these is love.”
I believe that God has placed the desire in my heart for marriage one day. I don’t know when that day will be, but I do know that God is completely trustworthy and knows what is best for each of His children. While I continue living my single and full life with contentment, I will pray for my future husband and pursue being molded and shaped in the image of Jesus daily. And when “Mr. Right-For-Me” finally stops to ask for directions and God leads him my way, may he find “Mrs. Right-For-Him”!
And all the single ladies said, AMEN!
Mandisa
