Our pastors look strong, they’re handsome, they’re filled with the Spirit of God, and… they’re married. With our failures in love, we singles may feel less qualified to serve God. But that is not what God thinks!
Everything God created has a purpose. Yes, even pesky little bugs have a purpose! Even if it’s missing a few teeth, even if it’s a little dirty, a hairbrush is still a hairbrush: we can’t use it to brush our teeth or scrub the toilet. No matter our flaws, or our past, the reason God created us hasn’t changed. We were created to love and adore Him, to have a fatherly relationship with Him, and to extend His kingdom on earth.
That is what the story of the Samaritan woman teaches us (John 4). She had been married five times. The story does not say that she was widowed five times; so she may have been through a few divorces as well. And she wasn’t married to the man she was living with. A little as if she were telling herself that she had strayed so far from God’s plan that she no longer had to follow it. Many Christian singles feel somewhat in the same situation. After accumulating failures in love and taking the wrong path, they believe they are too far from God to be useful in His Kingdom.
But Christ made the detour to show the Samaritan woman that she still had God’s attention and affection. She was so ashamed that she went out to fetch water at the hottest time of the day, a time when other villagers stayed home to shade themselves from the sun. She thus avoided reproach. Just like many singles who prefer to sit at the back of the church, or better yet, who take advantage of online assemblies so as not to have to meet other Christians who seem so much “holier” than them. Yet it was to this Samaritan woman that Jesus declared Himself the Messiah (He did not say so clearly to anyone else!).
All God needs to transform a life is a thirst for His presence and cherish His word; like the Samaritan woman. “But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14 NKJV)
God never wanted to see us suffer, never wanted to see us go the wrong way. But even those bad experiences, when placed in the hands of our Lord, can become a powerful tool to mend other hearts. After meeting Jesus, the Samaritan woman used her turbulent past to convince the rest of her village to accept Jesus as their Savior. “And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified : He told me all that I ever did” (John 4:39 NKJV).
Singles, your bad experiences do not disqualify you from the Kingdom of God. Your divorce will not prevent the Holy Spirit from making you His temple if you thirst for His presence and choose to cherish His word and follow it. Your celibacy will not prevent you from being powerfully used for the glory of God. You may have experienced rejection from those around you, perhaps even from your church, but our Lord will never reject you. Your testimony, whether beautiful or ugly, is a testimony that can win an entire city to Christ! Don’t hide! Let Jesus come and live in your heart, sit on the throne of your life, because that is what He desires: to make you the temple of the Holy Spirit. Yes, you!
(This is the summary of the message given to Christian singles of Quebec city, Saturday, September 3. You can watch it again - in french - on our YouTube channel.)