Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

1 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 35,

I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you,

but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.

So this verse comes near the end of a chapter in the Bible that talks a lot about singleness,

in which Paul, who's riding this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,

encourages people who are single to remain single.

And all throughout this chapter, we see how singleness is a good gift from God,

or the glory of God, and for the good of those who are single.

And I know this is a sensitive subject and a variety of different ways,

and I don't presume to be able to address all of those sensitivities in a couple of minutes here

that lead us into praying. But we talk a lot about how marriage is a picture of the gospel,

and it is. It's a beautiful picture of the gospel of Jesus's sacrificial love for the church,

and a husband's love for his wife, and the church's submissive obedience to Jesus,

and a picture of a wife, loudly following her husband's leadership.

And so some people think, well, okay, I want to portray the gospel,

so I want to get married, but singleness also portrays the gospel.

Singleness in beautiful, powerful ways portrays the Christian's ultimate identity in Christ.

And this world would say, you need a husband or a wife to complete you,

but singleness reminds us that's not true that in Christ we are complete regardless of our

marital status. These are truths about the supremacy of Christ,

that in a sense are even better portrayed in singleness than in marriage.

...