“God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; he plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm.”

This stanza of a poem written in the 1700s is where we probably get the familiar phrase:  God works in mysterious ways. After decades of watching God work, I’d say, if I can think of how God might do something, that’s probably not the way He will work! And I’m thankful that God’s methods aren’t limited to my human-sized brain.

The story of Abraham is an example of God’s unfathomable ways. When God told Abraham that He would bless him and his aged wife Sarah with a son, Abraham actually laughed in disbelief!  “‘How could I become a father at the age of 100?’ he thought, ‘And how can Sarah have a baby when she is ninety years old?'” (Genesis 17:17-19). Then Abraham offers God a substitute—”May [my son] Ishmael live under your special blessing!”  “No,” God said. “That was your plan, not Mine.”

The writer of Psalm 77 declared: “Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters—a pathway no one knew was there!” (Psalms 77:19).  Be encouraged today, if your life situation looks nothing like something that could lead to good.  Even if you’re “under the sea” or struggling in the “mighty waters” if you’re honestly asking God for His will and His way in your life, you are exactly in the right place. God does not need us to help Him out with our schemes or attempts to control everything and everyone.

God says: “I will make a pathway through the wilderness.  I will create rivers in the dry wasteland” (Isaiah 43:19).