When You Have to Just Leave Someone You Love in the Lord’s Hands

You might have been there, or you might be there now. Someone you love has gone astray from God. You want to help fix the problem, but the situation somehow makes that impossible. You are being stretched to trust God, and it’s difficult. If that’s where you are today, maybe one of these thoughts will help you:

1. God loves that person much, much more than you do. You love him or her deeply—and thus, your pain—but God loves that person so much more! And, He who has a supernatural undying love for your friend or loved one has the power to draw that person back in.
2. Prayer supernaturally closes the distance with the person. Somehow, we pray for that person—and it seems almost as if he or she is in the room. Prayer brings peace even when physical, emotional, and spiritual distance exists. 
3. God is often working in lives without giving us the details. Because He’s God, He is under no obligation to tell us what He’s doing in other lives. Our responsibility is simply to trust Him on their behalf.
4. God sees the whole picture. We don’t. Our noses are buried in one part of the picture—the bleak, black part that seems to surround our loved one. We don’t see with the eyes of God just how this bleak part makes the whole picture better. 
5. God’s calendar is different from ours. We recognize that most often when the situation demands we wait. What seems a great delay in God’s answering our prayers for our loved one, however, is no delay at all; it’s simply part of God’s plan to grow us in faith even as He draws our loved one to Him. 
6. Many other believers can tell stories of God’s faithfulness in eventually drawing wayward folks to Himself. When I wrestle over God’s delay in saving a friend for whom I’ve been praying for years, I have to remember God’s saving my parents at ages 71 and 79. God has proven Himself faithful in the past, and He will do so in the future. 
7. His hand is a hand of grace. He invites us to return. He welcomes us when we do, like the father of the prodigal son running to greet his returning child. His hands are hands we can trust—so it’s okay to leave our loved ones there.

What would you add to this list?