praying for your future husband

February 9, 2017 by Tricia Goyer 3 Comments

God’s Whispers About Your Future Husband ~ A Devotion for Teen Girls

Have you ever thought about what a whisper will sound like from your future husband? Can you picture the two of you snuggled on a couch? Or at a park? Or walking along a sidewalk? He leans close. You feel his breath on your cheek. What does he say?

I love you.

I can’t wait until we’re alone.

You look beautiful.

Isn’t that what every young woman hopes for someday? We all want a guy who will love God and love us with his whole heart. But how will you know when you find him?

God’s Whispers About Your Future Husband

It’s a romantic notion that, when you first see the man you’re going to marry, you’ll hear a booming voice from heaven, see fireworks and feel all mushy inside. That may happen for some. But maybe, just maybe, when you see the man God has prepared for you, the knowing will come as a gentle whisper. God’s been known to speak like that before.

The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain

in the presence of the LORD,

for the LORD is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart

and shattered the rocks before the LORD,

but the LORD was not in the wind.

After the wind there was an earthquake,

but the LORD was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake came a fire,

but the LORD was not in the fire.

And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

–1 Kings 19:11-12 (NIV)

All the Noise

It’s easy to get distracted by all the noise—the magazine quizzes, songs, and memes that claim to know about love, but the best way to truly know about love is to listen to the One who created it: God.

If you read God’s Word and feel a stirring in your heart, pay attention. He may be preparing you for a future—and for a future husband—only He can see. God longs to whisper to your heart, but you have to be still enough to pay attention.

Once you pay attention to what God is saying, it’s time to write some love letters.

Love Letters to Your Future Husband

Take out a few sheets of paper and start by thinking about love.

How do you know you’re loved?
What do people do to let you know they love you?
How does it feel?

Now write a love letter to your future husband. Include ways you love him even now. For example, one of those ways is praying for him! Other ways can be staying pure, making wise decisions, and protecting your heart.

Every time you have special thoughts about God, yourself, your future husband or your future, write about it, sharing your heart with your future husband.

Find a special place to keep your love letters to your future husband. Add to them when you feel the time is right. Save these letters until you can present them to your groom on your wedding day. Doesn’t it make you smile to think that the love you’re giving now is a small step toward the love you’ll have then?

Love Letters to God

Next, write a love letter to God. Don’t write down things you should say. Instead, write down what’s really in your heart. Maybe you want to love God more. Maybe you love Him now more than you ever have. Write that down.

God knows your thoughts, but it means even more when you take the time to share your love on paper. As you write, listen for His whispers. Let His love sink deep in your heart.

For I am persuaded beyond doubt that neither death nor life,

nor angels nor principalities,

nor things impending and threatening nor things to come,

nor powers, nor height nor depth,

nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us

from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

—Romans 8:38-39

A Prayer For You

Dear Lord, sometimes I get so caught up in the things here on Earth, that I forget about eternity with You. I have many hopes and dreams for my future, but remind me, Lord, to look past here and now. Remind me that You are what eternity is all about. And that someday I’ll be united with You, my eternal love.

None of us knows when our life will end, but I pray that You will find me ready. I give You my heart, my life. Thank You for giving me eternity in return. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

A Prayer For Your Eternal Love

Dear Jesus, no matter what life gives me, I’m thankful I have eternity with you. Someday, Lord, I may walk down a church aisle as a bride dressed in white. I hope so, but there are no guarantees.

What I am guaranteed is that when I accept You as my Savior, I will get to spend eternity with You. And someday there will be a heavenly wedding. I can’t wait! Jesus, may my love for You grow more each day until the moment I can look into Your eyes and see Your smile. What a celebration that will be!

Surely you have granted him eternal blessings

and made him glad with the joy of your presence.

–Psalm 21:6 (NIV)

God’s Whispers About Your Future Husband

Also, enjoy these FREE PRINTABLES to help you pray for your future husband!

Grab a copy of Praying for Your Future Husband: Preparing Your Heart for His here!

You can also Listen to Praying For Your Future Husband on Audible!

Also enjoy these FREE PRINTABLES to help you pray for your future husband!

June 2, 2016 by Tricia Goyer 1 Comment

Think You Might Be Pregnant? Your Bad News Could be Your Biggest Blessing

I remember the day I found out I was pregnant. I was 17-years-old and a senior in high school. The news was BAD in every way. My boyfriend dumped me when I didn’t have an abortion. I dropped out of school because I was so embarrassed of being pregnant. Yet that dark day turned into something beautiful.

When I was six months pregnant I dedicated my heart to God. I told Him that I wanted to live His way and not my own. My future started looking bright! I then started praying for my future husband, and God brought me an amazing, godly guy. We were married when my son Cory was 9 months old.

“Well that’s good for you,” you might be thinking. “But that doesn’t happen every day. That can’t happen to me. God can’t help me—won’t help me like that.”

Friend, I think He might. He wants you to turn to Him. He wants to provide a good life for you and your child. And he might even bring you an amazing, godly husband. How do I know? I’m not the only one He’s done it for. Below is a story from my friend Kelly. I met her at one of my speaking events. Here’s her story in her words:

“You are probably my only friend who will never get married or have kids,” said my friend just one week before I found out I was pregnant and just ten months before I met my future husband. Life can change in an instant. I realized my life’s course had drastically changed direction on what is known on my calendar as Black Monday.

Black Monday was the catalyst that propelled me away from eating movie-theater butter popcorn and a bottle wine for dinner to healthy home cooked meals. From repeatedly getting into superficial relationships revolving around sex to a committed marriage revolving around God (with sex as a perk <smile>.) From avoiding God because I feared Him to facing fears with God as my deepest and safest confidant. I still experience times of exercising faith without “feeling” it and overwhelming sense of fear, but they are less and less all the time. I am still convinced God is good, He is for me and not against me, He is faithful to me. Period. Black Monday was the start of my path in believing these things.

Several weeks before Black Monday my mom and asked if I thought I could be pregnant because of some recent gut issues. Adamant and defensive, I assured her that was not possible. Her mom wiles were sharp that night, and she told me how my younger sister found condoms in my apartment. Busted. This was God’s grace, showing me the truth in love. But I wasn’t ready to face the fact that my lifestyle needed healing.

After weeks of denial and bad gas, I was at a lunch date with girlfriends. One of them shared tons of strange symptoms that I totally identified with. The culmination of stories about her GI track irritations came to a roaring crescendo… she was pregnant! Fear seized my mind. I had to get out of there, find Planned Parenthood and “flush out whatever is in there.” God totally intervened. My girlfriend followed me out, all the while trying to talk me out of a panic and an abortion. She grabbed my shoulders and said, “Kelly! You are not thinking clearly.” Miraculously I just biked home. God saved Toby’s life.

As soon as I got home I took a test. The reality of being pregnant was so harsh I went outside for fresh air to help me stop hyperventilating. As soon as I got outside (to really drive the point home), I witnessed two ducks mating right before my crying eyes. The Lord. Is. Hilarious.

Shortly after finding out I was pregnant, I heard Tricia give her testimony. My heart was softened and that night I made a list of values I wanted in a husband and began praying for him every day until I met him 4 weeks after Toby was born. Five months after we met, we were married and Toby was adopted.

God is a god of miracles.

I love Kelly’s story. I love how her bad news was turned into a blessing! I’ve heard similar stories from so many young women who dared to take these steps of faith:

Turn your life over to God. You’ve been trying to do things on your own and you’ve messed up. Admit that to Him. (Don’t worry, He won’t be surprised.) Ask God to forgive you and give you a good future.
Start praying for your future husband. Consider reading Praying for Your Future Husband and praying along with the book. Think of all the positive, godly qualities you want in a husband and pray for those things.
Pray for your baby and dedicate him/her to God. You never know how God will use your child! Even if the world may say that your child is a mistake or accident, that’s not the truth. God created your child in your womb and has good plans for your child’s life!
Open your heart to those who want what’s best for you. It may be a parent or a friend. Surround yourself with people who love God and want His best for you. The road won’t be easy, but good friends help you on your walk.
Consider reading Teen Mom. This book was written just for YOU. Know that other teen moms have gone on to lead amazing, beautiful lives … and you can, too!

Click here for more resources for teen moms!

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OLD CODE

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October 9, 2015 by Tricia Goyer Leave a Comment

First Chapter Friday | Praying for Your Future Husband

Praying for Your Future Husband

Chapter 1: An Extraordinary Mystery

Robin:

Sometimes, when an idea just won’t go away, you need to pay attention to how God is nudging you. That’s what happened with this book.

Tricia and I have been friends for almost two decades, and both of us are writers. But our life stories as well as our love stories are radically different. Beyond writing, we do have one interesting commonality: both of us prayed for our future husbands when we were teens. But how did that add up to our
writing a book together? Three incidents convinced us we should…

The first moment of inspiration fell on me with a weighty sense of urgency one bright November afternoon. I was in Brazil, standing in front of three hundred teen girls in a school cafeteria. My Christy Miller and Sierra Jensen novels for teens have been translated into Portuguese, and the teachers at this school use the books as part of their curriculum. That meant all the girls had read the books. When my husband and I entered the cafeteria, the girls greeted us with a wave of screams as if we were the real Christy and Todd all grown up and visiting them in Brazil.

To quiet down the screaming girls, I asked the translator to invite them to ask questions. One of the girls raised her hand and popped up from her seat. In Portuguese she asked me what she and her friends should do since the boys in Brazil weren’t reading my books.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She spoke passionately as the translator beside me explained. “She says that, after reading your books, she and her friends are making good decisions. They’ve given their lives to Christ and now want to stay pure and save themselves for their future husbands. But, you see, the boys of Brazil are not reading these books. They are not making these same decisions. She wants to know what can be done about that.”

My heart pounded. Every face in that cafeteria was fixed on me, waiting for an answer. The young woman had just identified a global problem for our present generation of Christian women. I had heard this frustration voiced many times in letters and e-mails I had received from readers over the years. But no one had ever asked me what could be done to change this dilemma of an unbalanced ratio between God-honoring young women and their male contemporaries who were slow to seek God. What could I tell her?

Read the rest of Chapter 1 HERE or listen to me read the first chapter on Periscope! Be sure to stop by my blog next week for another First Chapter Friday.

Like what you’ve read? Click here to buy the book!

Read CH 1 of Praying for Your Future Husband on @TriciaGoyer’s blog! #amreading

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July 21, 2015 by Tricia Goyer 22 Comments

Still praying for that future husband? Don’t give up!

Are you still praying for a husband? Do you feel like giving up? Maybe you started praying in your teens and you’re in your 20s, 30s, or 40s now. Perhaps you’ve started to believe that your prayers are doing NOTHING. Sometimes it may seem like that’s true, but it’s not. Your prayers are working … but in ways you may not see for years and years to come.

Your prayers are working, but in ways you may not see for years! @TriciaGoyer

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Robin Jones Gunn and I wrote the book Praying for Your Future Husband a few years back, and one of our favorite things is receiving letters from women of all ages. Some of these letters include wedding photos! And many more of these women simply thank us for encouraging them on the journey.

If you’re still waiting … then keep praying! Here’s some encouragement for you to do just that:

Robin:

Prayer is an extraordinary mystery.

This sacred privilege of communicating with our heavenly Father is more than a cozy, open invitation to come to Him anytime, anywhere. Even though His ears are open to the cries of His children 24/7, prayer is more than that. Prayer is also an act of obedience. We are exhorted to pray for others and to pray without ceasing.

Neither Tricia nor I pretend to have prayer all figured out. What we do know is that God hears. He sees. He knows us. He cares more than we can ever comprehend. And most important of all, God answers prayer.

Perhaps you’ve noticed that the way God answers prayers often isn’t what we expect. We look back years later and see that what God did was oh so much better than what we first envisioned when we sent our heartfelt requests heavenward. He created us, and He desires the best for us. God always gives His best to those who leave the outcomes with Him.

Another, even more amazing mystery is that, when we pray for someone else, we change. All of us were made to be loved, to give and to receive love. When your heart connects through prayer to the One who is the source of true love, you’ll find that praying for your future husband will wondrously result in your heart being changed. And when your heart is changed, your life is transformed.

What sort of changes will God bring about in your future husband’s life as a result of your praying for him now? We don’t know.

As you pray for him, what sort of changes will God initiate in your heart? We don’t know that either.

But we do know one thing:

God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. It’s a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God. It’s a good thing when you’re young to stick it out through the hard times. When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions: Wait for hope to appear (Lamentations 3:25-29, The Message).

It’s a good think to quietly hope for help from God! @robingunn

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Tricia:

I love that last line: “Wait for hope to appear.” Isn’t that what you need most when you’re still praying for your future husband, especially when so many of your friends are married and have children?

Perhaps you’ve prayed and prayed, but God hasn’t answered. Your prayers seem like bulbs planted in a winter garden. Each time you check for results, all you see is barrenness, debris and frost. You doubt the warmth of your faith when you first planted the prayers in a season of light and hope.

Patience, dear God Lover. Nothing is wrong with your prayers. Leave all of them safely hidden with the Lord. Hold fast to the hope that He has heard and is at work in the garden of your heart.

One bright spring morning you will be stunned when you see what God’s resurrection power has done with those requests you buried so long ago.

What is it that the Lord is asking you to work on in your life during this season? Please don’t compromise your standards. Don’t start making excuses to justify why you’re settling for actions or relationships that you know in your heart aren’t what you want your life to be about.

How can you change that destructive behavior today? What are the new choices you need to start making?

Most importantly, be at peace. See this time as an opportunity for God to develop His patience in you. And don’t forget: Love is patient.

Will you get married one day? Statistics say that you will. We all know that staying married is a whole lot more important than just getting married. How you spend this stretch of waiting and allowing God to develop His patience in you will only benefit you during the difficult times that all married couples go through.

And just as there are two people in every marriage, there are two people who are learning patience as they wait for each other. If you’re having a hard time, your future husband most likely will, too. Your prayers will make a difference.

How do I pray for God to develop patience in my future husband?

Pray he will turn to God and that God’s peace will help him to be inwardly calm and willing to wait.
Pray he will have a quiet and steady faithfulness to God.
Pray he will be content in every state he finds himself in.
Pray his eyes will be focused on things to come, rather than things he wished he had now.
Pray he will not push for answers before the time is right.
Pray he will trust God’s sense of timing.
Pray he will be reminded of all the times God has been patient with him.
Pray he waits with hope and expectancy.

Of course, as you pray these things for your future husband, be sure to pray the same for yourself. Patience is like holding a closed bud of promise in your hand. Imagine that closed, white rose in your mind. Consider allowing each petal to unfold slowly, in its own way. Can you see the beauty of each stage? Can you see God’s hand wrapped around yours, watching the unfolding with you?

Patience is like holding a closed bud of promise in your hand! @TriciaGoyer

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The Love Story

Will your love story come true? For many of you it will. Concerning your future husband it could be in the near(er) future, or like some, it could be years in the distance. It could be a quick romance. It could be a slow falling in love. It could be exactly like you pictured it or like nothing you ever dreamed. But when the day comes that your story is celebrated by your closest friends and family, you’ll know that every prayer was worth it. And you might even wish you’d prayed more, because prayers are the first gifts you give to your future husband. Gifts that heaven participates in giving.

While we can’t guarantee every one of you will have that type of love story, there is another type we do believe will take place. Everyone, everywhere can have a beautiful love story with her God. It begins the moment you look into His eyes, realize how much you are loved, and give your love and commitment in return.

While we cannot guarantee your prayers will lead you down the aisle to a waiting mate, we do know that every prayer whispered is precious to God. None of them are wasted. While we hope your prayers for the man of your dreams come true, we know that your prayers bring you closer to the God of your eternity. And seeing the love in His gaze is the most beautiful love story of all.
If you are to be committed to anything, be committed to preparing your heart for God’s — in this way — and in every other aspect of your life. The love you’ll experience will be life-changing, and the celebration in eternity is one to look forward to with all your heart.

Still praying for that future husband? Don’t give up! @TriciaGoyer

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Read the original post at boundless.org

More Resources:

5 Ways to Pray for Your Future Husband by Paula Hendricks
3 Things Every Woman Should Pray for Her Future Husband by Afi Pittman
How to Pray for a Future Husband by Candice Watters

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February 24, 2015 by Tricia Goyer Leave a Comment

Indiana Jones + Indiana Josephine: When Love Becomes an Adventure

Last week John and I celebrated our 25th Anniversary. I knew when I married John that life would be an adventure, and it has been, but when I let him plan our anniversary I had no idea what I was getting into …

This is John and I on the second longest zip line in Central America. 1900 ft long with a 300 ft drop. (It was one of 10 zip lines we went on that day, and it was actually a lot of fun!)

I met John in 1989, and we started dating not long after I graduated from high school. I was a young, single mom and he was the godly man I’d been praying for. (The full story is in my book Praying for Your Future Husband … and it’s a good one!)

Getting married at 18 and 23-years-old has brought many challenges, but also many joys. (And while these safety hats were required for zip lining. I’m sure they could have come in handy during some of the hard marriage years, too!)

For our first official date John and I went to the theater and watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. So it seems almost fitting that on our anniversary we’d be exploring Mayan temples. (We climbed to the top of two of them, and boy were my legs SORE the next day! They were really tall steps!)

Visiting Mayan ruins was John’s dream. He’d been talking about it for years, and it was the highlight of our vacation.

This is the view from the top! These temples worshipped the Mayan sun god, but I was standing up there praising my God for all the years He’s given me with John.

And this is the view from the other temple. (See, I told you that I climbed them both!)

I have to admit that I’m excited to discover what the next 25 years will bring with this man. With six kids, two grandkids, and many years of active parenting ahead of us still (our youngest is 4-years-old), it’s sure to be an adventure!

Read the rest of this post at InspiredByLifeandFiction.com.

Now how about you … what is the biggest adventure you’ve been on?

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