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    Anticipatience: A New Word of Hope for Single Women
    Anticipatience: A New Word of Hope for Single Women
    Anticipatience: A New Word of Hope for Single Women
    Ebook94 pages1 hour

    Anticipatience: A New Word of Hope for Single Women

    By Sharon Virkler

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    About this ebook

    Anticipatience is a must-read for single women who are waiting on God for the desire of their hearts - a husband. It’s a book about real life, and it’s a book about hope – glorious, exciting, abundant hope. Within these pages, you’ll find the balance between anticipating God’s blessing and being patient for His perfect timing.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateJun 1, 2004
    ISBN9781483519104
    Anticipatience: A New Word of Hope for Single Women

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      Book preview

      Anticipatience - Sharon Virkler

      Endnotes

      Chapter One

      Anticipatience – A New Word of Hope

      Anticipatience. It sounds like one of those words you've heard before, but you're not quite sure. As far as I know, it's original. I came up with the word during a time in my life when I was struggling to understand how to wait both patiently and expectantly for God to provide me with the desire of my heart - a husband. Suddenly, it hit me that I couldn’t be expectant without being patient, and patience without expectation isn't really patience at all. It’s lost hope.

      And this is, without a doubt, a book about hope - glorious, exciting, abundant hope. It’s about finding the balance between the anticipation of God's blessing and the patience required to trust in His timing. It's about real life. It is not about launching out on our own in the frantic search for a mate or Ten Steps to Finding the Man of Your Dreams. It's not my own personal success story about how I found a husband.

      I have read many books and articles written for single women. My shelves and files are full of them. One of the first things I do when I pick one up is read the biographical sketch of the author. I must confess that in my own mind the author loses a bit of credibility when the bio reads something like, She lives on a ranch in Montana with her husband and two children.

      Well, the ranch part doesn’t make her lose credibility, but it does make me jealous!

      The part that disappoints me is the revelation that she's married. I'm not saying that someone who is married could never write effectively for singles, but my heart sinks just a little and I wonder if such authors really know and understand what I face. Somehow, knowing that they found their marriage partner and then decided to write a book of encouragement leaves me feeling uncertain as to their ability to talk to me about hope. Sure, it’s easy for them to talk about hope now - they're married!

      I think that you’ll find this book different. I've never been married, and I've never been engaged. I’m just a real woman with a real job and real life struggles. I attend a great church, and God has blessed me with many wonderful friends, both married and single. Still, I've never given up my deep desire to be in a marriage relationship and have my own family in spite of constant admonitions from well-meaning believers who encourage me to focus on contentment and service.

      There have been times when I thought God was finally bringing the man of His choice into my life, but then it became obvious that it wasn't His timing. Through it all though, I believe God showed me His plan for giving single women hope in spite of the circumstances. It seemed like each time I thought, I can’t go through this again, God used the disappointment to strengthen me and to strengthen my resolve to never give up on my dreams. I don't believe it is any great character trait of my own that has allowed me to hang on to hope. I believe with all my heart that it is claiming God's promises and following His plans.

      Not only is this book different because I’ve never been married, but it's different because of the message it brings. Anticipatience is written for the single Christian woman who deep down inside just doesn't believe that God has called her to remain unmarried and serve Him alone. This isn't another book about how to be content with singleness or even celebrate it. It’s not a book that tells single women they better learn to accept that their desires might not be what God has planned for them if it hasn't happened by now.

      Anticipatience brings another side to the story. It's the side that takes a hard look at what's happened to our world, even our churches, and how God's plan for human relationships has been twisted and altered so that we're pushed sometimes to accept our singleness as a completely viable if not a more valued option. A disclaimer is probably appropriate here: God does call some of us to singleness, for that can be the platform He chooses in some lives to fully display His glory. God has tremendously blessed the ministries of many single women, and for that we should all be grateful. If God is calling you to serve Him alone, then by all means celebrate it! But if a surrendered and willing heart tells you that’s not necessarily His will for your life, then this book is for you.

      I believe that God has another message for many single women - single women who have been told to let go of their desires, single women who have been told to just get on with their lives, single women who have given up hope of ever experiencing the relationship they want so much, women who have been lied to by Satan and the world. God wants us to grasp this concept of anticipatience and to tell Satan in no uncertain terms that we are not going to believe his lies anymore. I believe that God wants us to rise up as women of confidence and integrity and believe that until or unless He shows us otherwise He will provide for us in His timing. He will give us the grace to wait however long it takes.

      I love taking words and Scriptures apart to find the real meaning behind them by using Bible dictionaries and reference books. Throughout this book, you’ll see that by studying the original meanings of biblical words and terms, we can reach new levels of understanding.

      God’s Word says: But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance (Romans 8:25). Singles, especially single women after a certain age, don't often anticipate God's provision of a mate. We wish or faintly hope, but few of us really grab hold of faith as it pertains to the greatest desire of our hearts. The original Greek word that Paul uses for wait literally means to expect eagerly.¹ The word he chose for perseverance means cheerful or hopeful endurance.² Webster’s dictionary defines the word anticipate as to look forward to as certain, and it defines the word patience as steadfast, despite opposition, difficulty or adversity.³

      Dissecting the definition of my new word – anticipatience - reveals the hope that a single woman can allow to characterize her life.

      I can sense the rising doubt now. Skeptics will think, But I can't just say I will be married someday! Some would suggest that we should veil every prayer over with a meek, half-hearted only if it's God’s will. Don’t get me wrong. Of course we surrender to His will. But many prayers that begin or end with that phrase unintentionally serve the one praying to allow God a back-door escape in case it doesn’t work out the way they had planned. We say that we have faith, but most of us have no real idea what faith really is or how to apply it to our everyday lives.

      There is a well-known, often-quoted verse in Hebrews that explains exactly what faith is. Before you skim over it, assuming you know it well enough already, really think about it: Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).

      The original Greek translation of substance is that which is the basis of something, the assurance, guarantee, confidence, proof.⁴

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