Let God BE God | The transformative power of letting God lead
My friend was desperate. She had been going through a lot during the COVID lock-down and she was now thinking of divorcing her husband.
At first, she wouldn’t let me talk, she was just relating to me one issue after the other that had been escalating for the last couple of months to get to the point where she was thinking that it was better for her to leave her husband.
Reasons were apparently piling up. Her mother-in-law’s negative attitude toward her and everything she would do was driving her crazy. The financial stability they had to cover their most essential needs was marred by her husband’s decisions as to how to use their resources. The pressure of relatives not wanting to work but wanting financial help from them was stressing her to the point that she was having constant headaches and no pills would take them away. And to top it all, she was isolated in the small city where they had recently moved. She was away from her family and her social support.
I decided that the best thing I could do, was for me to be in silence so that she could offload.
As she was sharing things with me, she asked me for counsel. From the time she asked I just thought, Lord I need your wisdom, I need you to please take over me and speak through me.
As I was able to start speaking, I recognized my great need of His wisdom and tact to talk to her. My friend told me that twice in the last couple of weeks she had received the same verses in the Bible while she was spending time with God. It was Matthew 23, and in prayer she understood it to be a rebuke to her hardened heart.
When God has spoken, what can I say? When I realized with what earnestness the Lord was looking after her heart, my own heart was melted and subdued. I thought to myself, the only and best thing I can do is to lead her to acknowledge what in her heart of hearts she already knew. God was speaking to her, in her specific situation and addressing her greatest need.
As I submitted myself anew to the authority of the Word of God for her life as well as for mine, things got very clear in my mind. I encouraged her to believe, to set aside doubts, and to submit to God and just let Him be her God and guide her.
As the Holy Spirit took over both of us, we both had a beautiful experience of personal reconciliation. As I reminded her of the promise and plan A of God for marriage, to become one, the precious Holy Spirit led her to recognize that she needed first to draw closer to the Lord herself and then place her husband in His mighty hands. She also realized that the word ‘divorce’ should not be lightly thought or spoken about in a marriage that has been blessed to know God.
Dear reader, If you haven’t heard His voice talking to you through the pages of His Word, I sincerely encourage you to just talk to Him. Tell Him what you’re going through, tell Him that you want to accept His invitation to be part of your life. Ask him to please reveal himself to you through the reading of His Word. Dear reader, tell God that you’re ready to test and see that He is good. You will not be disappointed. And remember that He has promised that whoever searches for Him with all their heart, will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13).
Later on, as I reflected on this conversation, I remembered 2 Corinthians 5:18. What a blessing it is to be reconciled with God. When through Jesus, we are reconciled with Him, He gives us the ministry of reconciliation that we may follow in His steps.
And that work/ministry that as sons and daughters of God we have received, is to be a conduit of God‘s love to help others see Him for who He really is. As we individually are reconciled with God, we will also become peacemakers and look after our own reconciliation with others.
Dear God, precious Heavenly Father. We come to you in humble recognition of our great need of your work in our lives. Only Your Presence can bring light to the darkness in which many of us may be. Father, we come to You to present our hearts and minds in need of being reconciled today with You through Jesus Christ. As You grant us Your forgiveness and love, please work in us that we might look for reconciliation with the people around us, specially our closest relationships. Please grant us Your Holy Spirit and Your wisdom, for we ask in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.
