Being single is hard. Sometimes you tell people that, and they scoff, reasoning, “It’s not that bad.” That bad. No, nothing is that bad when you don’t care one way or another. Nothing is that bad when you don’t yearn day and night, when the longing isn’t so apparent you have to actively distract yourself. Nothing is that bad when you already have the thing somebody else wants.
Singleness can be that bad.
Your body aches, and your mind wonders. The longing keeps you up at night praying with hopeful expectation or crushing doubt. The anticipation of what comes next kills you, then kills you all the more the longer you wait, asking God, when, where, and how. The answer doesn’t come for a long time. Still, you wait.
Being single is hard.
Have you ever uttered those words before? Probably, if you’ve had the pleasure of watching your peers get engaged, then married, then have kids. Or the feeling hit after another late night of movies and pizza, or an annual trip, the one you took all by yourself. Whether mundane or extraordinary, some of us long to share our experiences with a companion. But there is no companion around.
Maybe that describes you as a single person today in your twenties, thirties, or maybe younger or older. Waiting is undoubtedly one of the hardest things a Christian can do. Despite this reality, while we wait for God in our singleness, we can choose what to do with our time. Do we wait in trust, or do we wait in despair?
The correct answer is obvious, but we don’t always know how to trust. Admittedly, I don’t either. One thing that has helped time and time again, a strategy passed down through the generations, since the age of the Bible being written and before, is prayer.
From sexual urges to loneliness, finding contentment in singleness can leave plenty to be desired. And who better to talk to about our desires than God?
Pray to Him for understanding, strength, patience, and more. Pray to Him on behalf of your future spouse.
Here are seven prayers for your future wife:
A Prayer for Growing Faith
God,
I pray to you now on behalf of my future spouse, asking that you grant her a mind and heart open to growing her faith. Please reveal to her ways she can learn more about Jesus and better serve the kingdom. Where she displays fruits of the spirit, help her to keep doing so. And where she is not, please reveal those areas to her.
I pray that you would give her opportunities to grow and serve others, and in turn, that her behaviors would serve as a role model for those she’s serving.
Help her to develop a faith that is apparent when people interact with her. Let her be like a light shining atop a hill. Grow her into a woman that is after your heart.
And may this growing faith not just bring blessings to your name and her life, but may that faith also be a blessing for our future marriage.
In Jesus’ name, I pray to you. Amen!
A Prayer for Sustained Chastity
Lord,
I will be the first to tell you, though you already know, sexual temptation is everywhere today. I have faced my own battles, and I’m sure there will be more in the future. While I pray that you would give me the strength to endure, to say no, and to walk away, I pray the same for my future spouse.
Give her the strength to not make the same mistakes I did, and the wisdom to discern right from wrong, avoiding any areas of gray. Help her to learn from mistakes and not repeat any.
Lord, I pray for a wife that honors her body as a holy temple and wants to reserve her sexuality only for her husband. May she be a woman who appreciates modesty and views chastity as not just an important value to uphold, but a way to honor you.
In Jesus’ name, I pray to you. Amen.
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A Prayer for Financial Stability
God,
Whoever my wife is and wherever she may be, I pray that you would bring into her life financial stability. If there are loans of any sort or any other type of debt, help her to free herself. Give her an attitude that is financially sound. Help her to be someone who manages finances responsibly, always with you in mind.
And I pray that these behaviors would transfer over into our marriage, that her financial stability and maturity would be a blessing not just upon her life, but also our marriage.
Thank you, Lord, for blessing her. Thank you for hearing my prayer. Amen.
A Prayer for Wisdom
Lord,
I pray to you for a woman who yearns for wisdom, a wife who wants to learn as much as she wants to please you. I pray that she would be a woman who is not just versed in worldly knowledge but seeks to discover all that she can about Scripture. May she be the sort of wife that can deliver wisdom to me when I’m clueless and quotes me a verse when I need a reminder.
Let her be a woman whose wisdom is known by those we seek her counsel, a woman who knows all the right lessons to teach her children.
May her wisdom make our marriage all the more prosperous.
Amen.
A Prayer for Maturity
Heavenly Father,
I come before you now with a prayer on behalf of my future spouse. I ask God that you would help her become a woman of maturity. Society often associates maturity with age, but without wisdom and experience, we can render ourselves childlike as adults. I pray for a wife who has put behind her old childish ways. While she may know how to have fun and play, I ask that she would also be responsible and communicative in our marriage and in all of her other relationships. May bad habits be laid to rest, and good habits be given life.
I pray for a wife who is capable of leading others but humble enough to follow in our marriage.
May she be a woman whose maturity is witnessed and emulated by others.
Thank you, God. Amen.
A Prayer for Healing
God,
You know that all of us carry baggage, some of which we hold for a lifetime. I pray that whatever burdens my future wife carries, she would seek you for healing. Though you may not remove everything, I pray that you would remove some things. I pray that she would experience enough healing to have a productive and healthy marriage with me.
May she seek counseling for whatever childhood traumas have been experienced and help for any present-day hardships. Whatever has occurred and from whomever, I pray for enough healing that would be ready for our venture together when we do meet.
Thank you, Lord. Amen,
A Prayer for Hopeful Expectation
God,
I come before you now with a prayer for hopeful expectation. While I can’t pretend to always have the best attitude, I ask you now to help me put my hope in you. Waiting is hard, but waiting is necessary. And maybe the best things in life are worth waiting for, maybe my future marriage counts as one of those things.
Whatever the case may be, help me, Lord, to be glad during the wait. Help me to get excited about what’s to come.
I pray for a woman that makes the wait worthwhile, a woman who exceeds my expectation, one that makes me look back in shame at all of my doubts. Let her be a woman who surprises me in all the right ways when we meet.
And I pray too that as she waits, you would fill her heart with hopeful expectation. Grant her a smile whenever she thinks about being married or who her future husband may be.
I ask that we would both find patience in our lives today, hoping that what comes next is worth the wait.
In Jesus’ name, I pray to you. Amen.
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Aaron D'Anthony Brown is a freelance writer, hip-hop dance teacher, and visual artist, living in Virginia. He currently contributes to Salem Web Network’s Crosswalk platform and supports various clients through the freelancing website Upwork. He's an outside-the-box thinker with a penchant for challenging the status quo.
Get in touch with him at aarondanthony.com and check out his debut short story anthology Honey Dreams on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.