Would God Lead Me To Marry The Person Of HIS Choice?

Some marriage related questions in young people are:

1. I want to marry a girl according to God's will, but would God will that I marry girl 'A' and not girl 'B'?

2. Does God know who I would marry?

3. Would God lead me to marry the boy of HIS choice?

Consider a young girl's prayer to God to lead her to marry the boy of HIS choice. This prayer presupposes that God knows which boy is the best possible fit for this young girl. Another presupposition is that God would intervene and lead this young girl to marry the boy of HIS choice.

The first presupposition is predicated on God's knowledge and HIS will. The second presupposition is predicated on God's intervention in human affairs.

In order for God to lead a young person to marry according to HIS will, God should know who this young person should marry. Thus there is an overlap between God's knowledge and God's will.

Three broad questions are in order for a greater understanding of God:

(1) Does God have a specific plan for your life and mine? Is there a God's will for you and me?

(2) Would God intervene in my affairs and enable me to do HIS will?

(3) Would God foreknow our choices?

First, does God have a specific plan for your life and mine? Most surely, yes! While affirming God's plan for our lives, Dr. William Lane Craig asserts that we have the freedom to make our choices, and he advises us as to how we could do the will of God:1

God has promised to guide us along life's path.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3.5-6)

A man's mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. (Proverbs 16.10)...

I suspect that those who oppose the idea of a specific plan of God for your life are reacting against a sort of divine determinism, according to which God moves us about like toy soldiers on His playing field to do His will. But affirming that God has a vocation for your life or a mate in mind for you in no way implies that we are puppets. We have the freedom to do God's will or not. Even Paul could say, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision" through which he received his calling to become an apostle (Acts 26.19). Indeed, the fact that we can miss the will of God for our lives and have to settle for His backup plan underlines the importance of walking in the Spirit, not grieving the Spirit through sin in our lives or quenching the Spirit by failing to respond to His guidance. None of us perfectly lives out God's plan for his life, but God can still guide you from whatever juncture in life you are at.

Second, would God intervene in my affairs and enable me to do HIS will? Yes! To say that God cannot intervene in human affairs is to question God's immanence (i.e. God is inactive or not with us) or God's omniscience (i.e. God does not know what to do) or HIS omnipotence (i.e. God is powerless).

In the Old Testament, Joseph's life was a testimony to God's intervention in human affairs. For example, the instance where Joseph was betrayed by his brothers was a part of God's plan (cf. Genesis 50:20).

In the New Testament, Jesus did not idle in a corner, waiting for people to become HIS disciples. He intervened in the lives of HIS disciples when HE called them to become HIS disciples.