A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to be apart of an event with many young women at my college campus called “Love in Real Life.” This event was geared toward women who are striving to follow and serve the Lord inside a world with so many pressures telling you to do the opposite. This event had four speakers: Merea Price, Dr. Jeff and Angela Mooney, and Roxanna Grimes. They spoke on contentment in singleness, how marriage cannot be our only hope…Christ is, and how the Lord can heal from sin, abortion, premarital sex, and other things through His gospel message. This event was put on by a great woman and friend, Whitney Keep, and it was such a great thing for so many women, including myself, who attended that night. Whitney wrote to the infamous and wonderful Elisabeth Elliot and she wrote back to the women of CBU. Re-reading it today brought tears to my eyes. She is so eloquent and filled with the Spirit. Here is her letter:

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Judging by the piles of letters I receive on this subject, I deduce that almost all young women are, quite naturally, longing for love. As a college girl, so was I. Few men are as eager as women are to seek a mate. May women write long letters to me explaining how they first saw a certain young man and “felt” at once that this is the man the Lord had picked out for them. Perhaps he was.

And perhaps he wasn’t. C.S. Lewis, in LETTERS TO MALCOLM, describes faith as “the state of mind which desperate desire working on a strong imagination can manufacture. [This] is not faith in a Christian sense. It is a feat of psychological gymnastics.” It is no my prerogative, of course, to tell my correspondent that she is mastaken as to God’s choice. She might possibly be right, and hopes I will be able to confirm her strong suspicion. It is my job, however, to remind her that “peace is the reward of those who love Thy law” (Ps. 199:165). The peace of Jesus was God’s gift to Him because He had no desire but to do the will of the Father. We must always remember that we have a Heavenly Father who knows far better than we do what is best for us. Marriage is a wonderful gift if given. It is not by any means given to everyone (sometimes perhaps it is merely “taken,” without much thought or prayer).

God has given abundant promises in His Word to lead and guide those who seek Him. Ponder Psalm 84:11, 12: “The Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing shall He withhold form them that walk uprightly.” His wisdom far outshines ours, and only He can judge which things are, for any given individual, truly good. Only God knows if marriage is a good thing for you…So TRUST, OBEY, and proceed quietly to do His will today. Tomorrow belongs to none of us.

The Lord led the Israelites all the way in the desert for forty years, to humble them and to test them in order to know what was in their hearts, whether they would keep His commands. “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna” (Deut. 8:2,3). The people tired of the food He gave them, convinced that He was withholding the best. Are you clinging to a similar conviction?

If you are single today, thank God for it. Do today’s work. You don’t have tomorrow. “It is good that a [woman] should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord” (Lam. 3:26). Don’t go after a man. Let God bring the right man at the right time, if marriage is in His plan for you. Remember that He loves you with an everlasting love and has drawn you with lovingkindness (Jer 31:3). Do you believe He is trustworthy? Now can you repeat the following words honestly?

I am willing to receive what You send,
To do without what You withhold,
To relinquish what You take,
To suffer whatever You assighn,
To do what You command,
To be what You ask me to be–
At any cost, now and forever.

“And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).

Do try to remember, my dear friend, that peace come with acceptance. I have truly found it so in my long life–to be able to say as Mary did, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as You have said” (Luke 1:38), or, in today’s English, we may say, “Here I am, Lord. Do anything you want with me.“

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To Be Continued… =)