Thursday, April 25
A young woman named Natalie had been married for seven years when, at the invitation of a friend, she attended an evangelistic series at a local Seventh-day Adventist church. Convicted by what she learned, she surrendered her heart to Christ, had a new-birth experience, and—despite the strenuous objections of her husband, parents, in-laws, even her next-door neighbor—Natalie joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church. She also adjusted her lifestyle, to every degree possible, to her newfound faith.
As one could imagine, she faced a great deal of pushback; what made it especially hard was her husband, who argued, and correctly so: “This is not what I signed up for when we got married. You are a whole new person, and I want the old one back”.
For years now, she has been struggling to live a life of faith. Though married, she is what we could call “spiritually single”.
What encouraging words do we find in the following verses for those who may feel spiritually single? Isaiah 54:5; Hosea 2:19, 20; Psalms 72:12.
All over the world, there are “Natalies” in our church. These people, men or women, are married but attend church alone or only with their children. They may have married a person of a different faith. Or perhaps when they joined the church, their spouse did not. Or when married, both were members of the church, but one, for whatever reason, dropped out, stopped coming, and might even be hostile to the faith. These men and woman come alone to church and to the meal after the worship service, or go alone to the outreach or social activities of the church. They are saddened when they cannot contribute financially to the church’s ministry as much as they would like because their spouse does not agree to do so. Though married, they might feel spiritually like a widow or a widower.
We probably all, at some time or another, have met people like this in the church, and they do need our love and support.
What practical things can we, as a church family, do to help the spiritually single in our midst?
