Our Single Satisfaction

Happy Monday, SEBTS ladies!  We are so excited to have Marlana Branning as our guest blogger today.  It is the month of LOVE, and we just said a few posts ago that we are going to talk about LOVE in some form or fashion ALL MONTH LONG. So in the spirit of LOVE, we asked one of our favorite SEBTS gals to post on this wonderful topic.  Here's the catch...it's not a typical post on LOVE. We don't want to spoil the fun, so read on to hear what our sweet southern girl has to say about the four letter word. 

It’s that time of year again: the time of year where L-O-V-E is in the air.

If you are single, you probably fall into one of two categories in the month of February. The first category is what I like to call the Bitter Betty category.

You might be a Bitter Betty if:

• You call Valentines day, “Single Awareness Day”.

• You roll your eyes more this month than any other time of year.

• You declare to everyone you know that you are going to “skip” the holiday this year and pretend it never existed.

• You gain more weight this time of year because you eat a pound of chocolate every other day.

• You are a self proclaimed “Single Independent Woman who needs no man!”

…you get the idea…

The other category you may fall into is what I like to call Sappy Suzie.

You might be a Sappy Suzie if:

• You watch every single sappy chick-flick ever known to man in the entire month of February.

• You ‘Ooo’ and ‘Ahh’ over every cute couple that walks by.

• You make it known to everyone how you wish you had a date for Valentine’s Day.

• You cry and wallow in self-pity all month wishing you had a honey to shower you with gifts.

• You have an entire fantasy in your head of what life is going to be like when your dream guy steps into your life, sees you for the first time, and falls madly in love with you

…you get the idea…

If I’m honest, I have fit into both of these categories throughout different seasons of my life. BUT, I am starting to question if there is another option. Do we have to fit into one of these two categories as godly single women?

I want to suggest that we need to look for something different this February. And really, it’s not that we need to look for something, it’s that we need to look for someone. My challenge is for us to look for a Single Satisfaction in our Savior Jesus.

Jesus states in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

Why would we ever want anything but Jesus? He should be our single satisfaction. Those who come to Him shall never thirst or hunger again. I don’t know about you, but I want some of that!

In John 4, we see this same imagery of thirst when Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well. He tells her in verses 13 and 14, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

You see, Jesus satisfies us for eternity. It isn’t just a temporary thing. Relationships come and go. People disappoint us. Things disappoint us. But Jesus…He satisfies for eternity.

Louie Giglio said this at a Passion Conference:

“I want to invite you tonight to run with everything you’ve got into the embrace of Jesus Christ, to know that He will meet you there, to taste and see that the Lord is good, and to unite your heart to His in a love affair with the King of all creation, because here’s why… Our satisfaction and God’s glory are the same thing. Your satisfaction [means] God doing something in you that no one else can do. [It is] you getting what you need – you getting connected to God, filled, blessed, healed, restored, redeemed, alive, freed, put your own words around it…God is into you. You should be into God. And when you get into the God who’s inviting you to be into Him, you will then become satisfied in Him. Then He’ll be the thing glorified in your life.”

My question for us is this: Is God being glorified in and through your life based on your satisfaction in Him?

Whether you are a Bitter Betty or a Sappy Suzie, I want you to examine your heart. Where are you trying to put your satisfaction? Are you trying to satisfy the desires of your heart with a relationship? Are you trying to be satisfied by the fantasies of your mind? Are you looking for satisfaction in the fact that you are too independent to need anyone?

“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” –John Piper

Marlana is an online student at SEBTS. She is currently working on her M.Div. in Women’s Studies. She is a Girls Ministry Director to Middle High and College age girls in a church in GA. She loves driving down country roads, going to the beach, and loving on her nieces and nephew. Her passion is teaching, discipling, and loving on teenage girls. Marlana is also the founder, administrator, and editor for OurSinglePurpose.com.