How Can I Be Content In a Situation that I Didn't Choose?? (Part 1)

Rather than looking at singleness as a curse to be ashamed of, I can accept it as a wonderful gift from our all-knowing God!

1 Corinthians 7:7-8
"For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one afer this manner, and another after that. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I."

The word gift here is the Greek word, "charisma", and is defined in Strong's concordance as "a (divine) gratuity, that is, deliverance (from danger or passion); (specifically) a (spiritual) endowment, that is (subjectively) religious qualification, or (objectively) miraculous faculty." Interestingly, it is the SAME Greek word used in other familiar verses concerning gifts of the Spirit given to us by God (i.e. 1 Tim 4:14 & 1 Peter 4:10). In these passages, we are instructed to "neglect not the gift that is in thee" and to "minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God".

We are taught throughout the New Testament that we all have separate gifts with which to glorify God and build up the church. Our marital status is in itself a gift, differing by what God's will for us is. If we are married, that is our gift, and if we are single, that is also our gift. Either way, we are not to neglect the gift given to us, but to use it to further the cause of Christ. Remember the parable of the talents in Matthew 25? God gives each of us our gifts for a reason, and he expects us to use them!