My answer is what I would love to share to encourage both my single and married friends, male and female alike. God took me to the book of Deuteronomy 1 where the spies were sent out to spy on the promised land and I learnt the following lessons:

Marriage is a step of faith: God had already told the Israelites this is your promised land, go up and take possession of it, but the Israelites were able to convince Moses that they should send out men to spy out the land and bring back report. The truth is if God has told you this is your promised land, why don’t you step out in faith instead of seeking answers and trying to spy out the land (I felt so guilty at this point). If you have prayed to God about your relationship and God answers your prayers, and he says your spouse is your promised land, why not step out in faith and trust God about the marriage.

There will always be giants in the land: Yes! So it is true what they all said, there will always be issues. Even though that was the promised land for the Israelites, there were giants for them to conquer! The fact that, that is your promised land does not mean there wont be challenges. The fact that your relationship is a perfect match made from heaven doesn’t mean you wont have challenges in marriage, there will always be giants in the land.

God has given you all it takes to overcome: When God said go up and take possession of the land, he had given them everything to conquer  and he had gone ahead of them already. That is the same thing with marriage, if God has shown you the promised land, surely you have him on your side to conquer the giants (Duet 1:30). God made me realize that there will always be challenges in marriage, but with him on my side, I am more than a conqueror and the same goes for you. This truth gave me so much peace.

Ten versus Two: So they sent out twelve men, one from each tribe. This confirmed why I had few positive answers during my search. Ten came back with negative reports and only two had something positive to say. Did the two spies see the giants? Yes! So why was their report different? They saw God’s word above the situation, as long as God had given them the land for their possession, the giant issue was a small matter. They trusted God and saw the promised land.