Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters—a pathway no one knew was there!  Psalm 77:18

The first time it happened was awful.  It was New Year’s Eve and Beth’s college-aged son had been driving drunk.  When he hit the car of a husband and wife returning home from festivities, the woman was expecting a baby and had to be hospitalized. Beth’s heart was broken again sometime later, on the day her son stood in court …for a second DUI or driving under the influence charge. Beth had been praying that her son would surrender his life and his drinking, to God.  It seemed her prayer wasn’t being answered.

I’ve stood in Beth’s shoes, praying for change in the life of a loved one; praying for them to be on the “right road,” rather than a “wrong” one, in life. During a particularly frustrating time for me, God reminded me, that He “isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No,” says 2 Peter, “he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.” (2 Peter 3:9)

Sometimes there are metaphorical “rock and stones” that need to be navigated or removed from a person’s path.  This stone-clearing can be a painful, time-consuming process, but God is a rebuilder of lives. Sometimes the path, like that of the Israelites escaping the Egyptians, goes right through the sea—through circumstances that we can’t imagine as being good!  Divinely ordained pathways are often invisible to us.

Praying for change in the life of one you love?  Don’t give up!

 

Resource reading: Psalm 103:8-14