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In August I wrote a blog about my lovely friend, Paula, and her journey with the Lord. This blog is a continuation of her story. If you haven’t read Part 1 (When the Spirit Shows Up), read it before reading this story.

    I gave Paula a challenge to risk opening her heart to the Lord. I prayed for courage do take that first step. Then I left her to make her decision.
For about a month, nothing changed. Paula continued to carry the constant weight of her pain and then would turn to drinking when she couldn’t handle to pain and needed a moment’s escape.

Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. she will look for them but not find them. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them. ~Hosea 2:6-7a

    I watched as the Lord put up more and more thornbushes in her path through problems with her family and with her boyfriend. After a couple of weeks of continued hardships, Paula sat in my room crying saying, “Lisa I don’t know what I’m doing. This isn’t me. I just can’t do this anymore.” Tears streamed down her cheeks as we talked about where her choices have led and what the Lord is offering her. I told her, “What you have right now is not life, but Jesus came to give you LIFE abundant. It’s your choice dear what you want.”
    I love how the Lord’s mercy is so beautiful even when it doesn’t look or feel merciful. Running into thornbushes at every turn doesn’t seem like mercy, but it is. The Lord knows we have to turn to Him to experience life and He will do EVERYTHING necessary to bring about that turning in our hearts.

Then she will say, “I will go back to my husband as at first; for then I was better off than now”…Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor  a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. “In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call Me ‘My Husband’; you will no longer call Me ‘My Master.‘ ~Hosea 2:7b, 14-16

    We prayed together as she began to invite the Lord into her pain to bring her healing. For the first time she wanted to the hard road to forgiveness and healing more than she wanted to momentary ease of simply numbing her pain. She is on a long road to recovery and healing. It will take time, but she has started communicating more openly with her boyfriend and is beginning to bring hurts to the Lord rather than immediately reaching for a drink to numb her hurts.
    These are small changes, a slight turning of her heart, but it’s the beginning of something beautiful the Lord is doing in her life.

   To read Part 3 of Paula’s story, read On the Path to Healing.

3 responses to “God’s Merciful Thwarting”

  1. love this my dear sister! you’re bringing the light of his Kingdom to the dark places. praying for paula!