Kingdom Single by Tony Evans

Author:Tony Evans
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Life / Relationships, Religion / Christian Life / Personal Growth
Publisher: Focus on the Family
Published: 2018-08-21T00:00:00+00:00

Hope Deferred

But what if your situation or season has seemed to go on longer than those of these women in the biblical stories? After all, both situations involved disasters that had occurred in a relatively short time. Often it’s easier to cry out to God in the immediacy of an urgent moment. But what if you’ve been single for a decade now, or even two, and the issues you face as a result go on and on, with no end in sight? It’s in those times that it may be more difficult to cry out to God or to keep crying out to Him.

Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” When unchanged circumstances go on for so long, they can literally make you feel sick about your season. Now, I know there are many contented singles, and this chapter won’t apply to everyone. But I also know there are many singles who simply feel that going on another day, week, month, year, or even decade as a single is a letdown. It’s a “hope deferred.” And when hope becomes deferred, it’s easy to give up, hang your head, and simply mope through life rather than embracing it or facing it with joy.

What should a kingdom single do when carrying a heart burdened by a season that’s gone on too long? A glimpse into the life of another woman named Hannah will give us great insight into how to cry out to God in the midst of a long drought within yourself and your own needs.

When we come across Hannah in the book of 1 Samuel, we find a woman who was not doing well at all. Yes, she was married, but the principles of her story apply to singles who are looking to become married as well. While Hannah wasn’t looking to become married, she was looking for a “someone” in her life. Hannah desperately wanted to be a mother; she wanted a child.

Married to a man at a time in biblical culture when multiple wives were the norm, Hannah found herself empty in the area that mattered most to women in that society—family. Her husband’s other wife had already borne him children, “but Hannah had no children” (1 Samuel 1:2).

We know that Hannah’s husband loved her deeply despite her lack, because we read that he “would give [her] a double portion, for he loved Hannah, but the LORD had closed her womb” (1 Samuel 1:5). Yet even with her husband’s love, Hannah suffered because children during this time secured a future for their parents and a legacy. Children were a critical and essential part of life, especially as parents aged. Hannah wanted nothing more than to have a child.

Hannah’s rival enjoyed witnessing her defeat over and over each year. Her rival was a bully who taunted Hannah regularly. We read, “Her rival, however, would provoke her bitterly to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb. It happened year after year, as often as she went

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