Are We There Yet?

Today's devotional:

When we go through tough seasons of life, we’re tempted to wonder, “Will this ever end?”
The children of Israel probably wondered that when God led them through the desert for the first time. They’d had a great victory in Egypt but now faced a long march through the desert. Exodus tells us, “God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, ‘If they face war, they might change their minds.’”
God took them on a longer route so He would have time to teach them and prepare them for what was ahead. If it feels like you’re in a desert, maybe God’s preparing you for something special. One day you’ll look back over your path and realize that God knew just what He was doing. (Nancy Leigh DeMoss)

This message really resonated with me today.  I've been thinking about my divorce off and on over the past couple of months.  Actually, more than thinking, I've been feeling the divorce recently.  In my concept of time it is time to be done with that and time to be moving on to the next thing.  But, even though it seems like it's been such a long time since my divorce, it's still hard to believe that it really happened; that when I tell the story, I'm talking about myself and not some character on TV.  I know if God had told me ahead of time that this is what I'd be facing in life, I wouldn't have believed Him.  "Not me - I don't believe in divorce!  That's only for people who just didn't try hard enough to make things work."  If God had shown me my path ahead of time, I probably would have turned around and told Him I was going to take a different path.  Like the Israelites, I would have looked at myself and my own strength and determined that I did not have what it would take to get through a situation this terrible.  And yet, like Nancy DeMoss says in this devotional, I believe that I will one day be able to look back on this and see the mighty works God has done, things that never would have happened if I had followed my path rather than God's.  When I'm tempted to give up or complain to God because I'm not done with the suffering yet, I can remember the Israelites and how God brought them to the blessed Promised Land on His timing, not theirs.  I can trust that God will deliver me, too, and all I'm called to do right now is wait on Him.