---

Bible Reading Plan

Reading Plan:  John 15:7-17

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.

•••

Daily Devotional: Rising to Knock Again

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Matthew 7:7-8

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Mark 11:22-24

Like many young girls, I dreamed of marriage. Through high school, I stayed single while my friends started dating, telling myself God had someone special—I just hadn’t met him yet.

College felt promising. At a small Christian school filled with believers, surely one of these men would be my person. In my sophomore year, I thought I had found him. I began planning our future. “Ring by Spring” felt so close.

Instead, I got a breakup letter.

After graduation, I moved to Phoenix and connected with a thriving church of young adults. I was meeting so many young men who loved God. Once again, I thought, maybe here. Five years later, nothing had changed. Still single and worn down by disappointment, I moved back home.

Back in Chicago, I tried everything, including small groups, social gatherings, and even dating apps that terrified me. Nothing worked. Turning thirty brought a new level of anxiety. Friends were announcing pregnancies while I struggled to get a coffee date.

Over the years, the disappointment cut deep. I had followed God faithfully. Why did this door remain closed? Over time, I felt defeated. Instead of knocking at the door, I sat on the front stoop, hanging my head in my hands. Was God even listening?

Then a recent sermon challenged us to pray boldly for a desire we’d abandoned. I’d stop believing marriage would happen. Not because the dream disappeared, but because it hurt too much to hope. I gathered a mustard seed of faith and stood to knock once again.

Nearing forty, I don’t know what my future holds. But I do know this: God has great plans for my life, and He will give me what I need. His ways are better than mine, even when I don’t understand. I have already seen the way He’s molded and shaped me through difficult seasons I endured on my own.

Marriage may come. It may not. Either way, God is good, and He is still listening. I will keep asking, knocking, and trusting. If God can move a mountain, He certainly can make a way for a husband. If the door to marriage opens, I will walk through it gratefully. If it remains closed, I will trust the One who stands on the other side.

Next Steps

What have you given up on? Talk to God about it. Then get up and start knocking.