Genesis 24:63
When Isaac was around 40 years old, here records a famous story where his father Abraham commanded his old servant to find a wife for Isaac. Before Rebekah came, here records Isaac going out to meditare in the field. Most biblical scholars would interpret “meditate” as a prayer or form of communication with God. While the contents of the prayer was not recorded, we can see how Isaac had dedicated time to pray to Him. This is a very good habit or attitude we ought to inculcate in our lives. We should not wait till after marriage to seek to establish a prayerful life, but rather we should start before that. We often hope to find a good spouse or partner, but have we ever first wondered if we would make a good spouse? How do we become such a good spouse? The most basic requirement is for us to establish an intimate relationship with God. Before entering into marriage, we ought to focus on establishing such a relationship with God. Then, we would have the foundation to be a good partner and have a prayerful life even after marriage. If we only wait till after marriage to build this intimate relationship with God, it would not be very easy.

Proverbs 16:7
This does not mean our spouse is our enemy but rather even our enemies would be at peace with us when we please the Lord. All the more, when we are close to Him, it will help our relationship with our partners. On the contrary, without this close relationship with God before marriage, it will be hard to build a strong relationship with our spouse AND with God in the relationship after our marriage.

Genesis 25:21
Isaac had a similar experience to his father Abraham as they could not have children. However, he did not follow his father in finding a concubine in order to conceive. Instead, he pleaded to the Lord for his wife. Perhaps he had learnt from Abraham’s experience. Nevertheless, we see that Isaac put this matter in his prayer to plead to the Lord. Out of the 3 patriachs, Isaac was also the only one without multiple wives.

Definitely, Isaac did have his weaknesses, like when he deceived the King of the Philistines by saying his wife was his sister. But we still do see moments where he was strong in his faith. He pleaded for quite long for his wife as he had to wait 20 years before Jacob and Esau were born. What can we learn from this today?

Firstly, since most of us are singles we should pray and prepare for the future. For those of us who have yet to receive the HS, today we are gathered here to pray for the HS. We want to receive a promise too, similar to Isaac (that his children will become a nation), the promise of the HS. So we should be like Isaac too to keep praying without wavering faith. Isaac prayed for around 20 years to receive His promise, more than most of us sitted here. Do not submit to our own will but to His.