Last week I shared about a woman who didn't see God's promise come to pass because she was unwilling to wait and endure. Well I was reminded of another woman I knew whose marriage ended in divorce. Her husband had an affair and wanted to leave her for the other woman. The wife proclaimed to all who would listen that God was going to restore her marriage. I bring this up not to judge the woman but because I think there are lessons for us here. The wife was in church all the time when she met her husband, but during the course of their marriage she drifted away. She'd stopped going to church altogether when her husband started the affair. Only God knows but I didn't sense that her "faith" was coming from intimacy and trust with God. My sense was she was (understandably) angry and her proclamations that God would restore her marriage came from a need to be vindicated rather than love for her husband.
We must be very careful that our faith is rooted in God's promises and not in our pride or anything else. This wife told everyone she knew about her husband's affair, even though the Bible says love covers sins. Sadly I recall asking her not to
discuss it in front of her small children but she persisted in berating the children's father, ignoring even the pleas of her toddler to stop. She emitted anger, not love, and her husband ended up marrying the other woman. I think it got to the point where he felt more like a project or a prize to be won than a loved one. You don't draw people to you by calling them sinners. She'd shamed him in front of all their friends and family and saddest of all she made it seem like God had failed her. She was constantly telling her husband and others God would bring him back but it didn't happen. Was God powerless? No. Does God desire to see marriages restored? Of course. But God is not an errand boy and we have to know the difference between a promise and our pride; between demanding our way and submitting to His way. We must learn the art of letting God vindicate us; versus vindictively trying to use God as a weapon at our disposal. I wish that wife had let God heal her, and shown her how to forgive and love her husband. I wish her husband had been drawn by that love and convicted of his sin and turned away from it. But different choices were made.
God's Beloved I can recall times in my life when my desire to be vindicated got out of balance. Desires can confuse us and signs can be misleading. I told people things were going to happen a certain way at a certain time and I really believed it. When reality proved otherwise there were temptations to make things happen in my own strength. That's when we can choose to get back on track or we can't let pride be our downfall. I'd rather endure the temporary shame of being wrong and later receive God's best in His way and His timing.