I trust the Lord for fulfilling His promises, answering prayers He said were “done,” and saving those I love, but the pain in prodigals’ day-to-day lives is hard to take. Yes, “circumstances don’t change the promise” (Winkelman, Fighting for Your Prodigal through Prayer, p.  125). and “we are walking in victory while praying through circumstances” (p. 139), but many circumstances in a prodigal’s life are very difficult to navigate, much less accept.

God never leaves them or us. For us, the “but God” is His presence, strength, and the fruit of the Spirit; but what is the “but God”—His interference—in the day-to-day for them? Of course, they are alive, and for some of their lifestyles, that is a huge ‘but God”! Also, we are given raindrops, evidence of answered prayers in their lives, and those are “but God” raindrops, but we are still waiting for THE “but God”: the method He uses to bring them back to salvation. I know it will be brilliant, and waiting for it is hard.

Sometimes we can identify with the psalmist who wrote: “You are the God of my strength; Why do You cast me off? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” (Psalm 43:2 NKJV).

I was talking to a mentor/friend about grief. We both love the Lord and trust Him to keep His word, but we both admitted to grieving. We all want the people we love to live abundant lives, and witnessing less than that causes us to grieve. There are times I find it very difficult to not sink into a hole for a while. I am working on it through prayer.

Then God reminded me of these verses, beautiful and powerful reminders for times when we grieve:

• “‘Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord’” (Luke 1:45).
• “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9).
• “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).
• “The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the LORD” (Lamentations 3:25-26).
• “We will rejoice in your salvation, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the LORD fulfill all your petitions” (Psalm 20:5).

The most effective thing we can do to come out of our grief is ask the Comforter to comfort us. Because He is no respecter of persons, we can trust He will do for us what He did for David: “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent” (Psalm 30:11-12). And, it never hurts to do what another psalmist said he did: “O my God, my soul is cast down within me; Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, And from the heights of Hermon, From the Hill Mizar” (Psalm 42:6). I wondered the significance of those three places, knowing God put them in the Bible for a reason, and I found victories occurred in those three places for God’s people. (For a deeper look at these places, read my blog at prayer-for-prodigals.com/2024/06/03/functioning-from-a-place-of-remembered-victories/)

We have our places where victories happened, too, and revisiting those places helps us get through valleys where we still need a victory.

So, sometimes we grieve if we need to, because it is a natural response, and we work through it prayerfully to find God is there in the middle of it all, healing our hearts and guiding our thoughts and actions.

The waiting for the “but God”—His interference in our prodigals’ bondage—is hard, but we know the method He uses to bring them back to salvation will be brilliant.

I trust God, but … in the hard times I can trust Him, too.