Dear Conrad - While I know God has a wife for every man, is it wrong to date Christian girls and see if you enjoy time with them. Or should you wait and if you find the "certain person" pray until you know it's certain she's your wife. –Kevin

Dear Kevin,

There’s something to consider in your question. While it is true that God has a plan for your life – the question you are really asking is how do you discern God’s will. In this case it concerns a girl.

You mention, “Pray until you know it's certain she's your wife”. I would say - no amount of prayer by itself is going to help you know God’s will.

The reason for this is that God tells us his will in the Bible.

2 Timothy 3[16] All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, [17] so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

God has explained to us tons of things in the Bible. The purpose of marriage, what makes a good marriage, what makes a good wife, what makes a good husband, etc. No amount of prayer is going to open the Bible next to someone and open it to the exact passages that person needs.

If we pray without ever opening our Bible – we can only expect for God to “tell” us his will through our feelings. But since we are sinful, we of course want what we want. Not only that, but Satan is also tempting us using our feelings to lead us astray. Our feelings will lead us astray.

So the only way we know if our feelings are in line with God’s will, is seeing if it lines up with the Bible. Again, it gets back to the Word of God. And then it’s not based on feelings anymore.

Now of course I have not said prayer is useless. We pray that God will help us understand his Word as we are reading it. We pray for wisdom to apply it. We pray for guidance from other believers. Prayer is a powerful thing. But let us not forget that God has already shown us his will through his Word.

For more on these subject, go here...

Who Should I Date?
How Do I Discern God's Will?