Not Yet Married: The Pursuit of Joy in Singleness and Dating PB

Life Is Never Mainly about Love and Marriage. So Learn to Live and Date for More.

Many of you grew up assuming that marriage would meet all of your needs and unlock God’s purposes for you. But God has far more planned for you than your future marriage. Not Yet Married is not about waiting quietly in the corner of the world for God to bring you “the one,” but about inspiring you to live and date for more now.

If you follow Jesus, the search for a spouse is no longer a pursuit of the perfect person, but a pursuit of more of God. He will likely write a love story for you different than the one you would write for yourself, but that’s because he loves you and knows how to write a better story. This book was written to help you find real hope, happiness, and purpose in your not-yet-married life.

Author

Marshall Segal (MDiv, Bethlehem College & Seminary) serves as the executive assistant to John Piper and is a popular contributor to desiringGod.org.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part 1: The Not-Yet-Married Life
1. Love Is Looking for You
2. Single, Satisfied, and Sent
3. Undivided and Undistracted
4. Love the Life You Never Wanted
5. Knowing Everyone but Never Known
6. 100,000 Hours
7. Procrastination in Pursuing Him
8. The Secret Most Important Step
 
Part 2: When the Not Yet Married Meet
9. Date for More Than Marriage
10. The Best Book on Dating
11. Your Last First Date
12. Is He the One?
13. Sexual Freedom and Purity
14. Acts of War in Love
15. The Third Wheel We All Need
16. It’s Not You—It’s God

Conclusion: My Dreams for Your Marriage

Notes
A Word of Thanks
General Index
Scripture Index

Endorsements

“I have been married for forty-eight years. But even now, a half-century later, the days of falling in love and ‘going with’ Noël are still vivid in my memory. They are in a class by themselves. Marriage knows its unfettered ecstasies, but those years leading to marriage were supercharged with never-before and never-since emotions. We need God’s wisdom. And we need his supernatural help to live it out. Marshall Segal is a trustworthy guide. He is conscious of the world but conformed to the Word. God did not leave us without wisdom or power for this volatile season of life. Marshall will point you to both.”

John Piper, Founder, desiringGod.org; Chancellor, Bethlehem College & Seminary

“Marshall’s writing never fails to be richly insightful, thought provoking, and heart probing. He is also refreshingly transparent as he shares out of what he has experienced—sometimes the hard way—of God’s Word and ways. As Marshall chronicled his journey through years of singleness, I was delighted to see God bring Faye into his life ‘in due season.’ Now I rejoice that he has written this book, which will be a feast to men and women in any season of life, as they press through every unfulfilled longing this side of heaven, to pursue joy in Christ.”

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author; Bible teacher; host, Revive Our Hearts