It became evident to my husband that our situation was beyond human remedy. If something was going to change, it had to be caused by some kind of supernatural intervention. It had to be an act of God and God alone.

My state of rebellion, as a prodigal wife, had destroyed every aspect of trust in our marriage, and my husband was weary of trying to convince me not to pursue a life separate from him in the far country. We had been down every broken road, and I needed a new direction, but had no idea that I was only running from an inner battle of my own. Later on, I would finally turn to God and face the darkness inside of me that kept me running for so long.

Upon my departure, my husband’s back was up against a wall. He was desperate for the answers, but as he let go, he turned to God and began shedding his self-confidence. He knew he had done everything he could possibly do.

From a prodigal’s perspective, once he really let go, and I mean honestly and truly let go in his heart and soul, thereby trusting in God to meet all of his needs, something significant changed between us. I was no longer the center of his universe, where everything revolved around me. God would take His rightful place and his life would be filled with purpose and meaning with or without me. The shift of expectations led to the sense of freedom that we were both searching for. We did not have anymore pressures that were too heavy to uphold. We were both freed from the demands of fulfilling what only God could.

Do you see the point? Once my husband felt there was no way forward, like we were stuck in a realm of an impossible situation, he let go of his fears, and trusted God. He saw the circumstances, he saw my lack of interest in our family, and the lack of desire to be his wife, and despite all of his prayers, our marriage appeared to be dead, but he trusted in God explicitly to make the necessary changes within both of us.

Who else can relate to these circumstances where things appear to be dead, and there appears to be no hopeful signs of change in your prodigal?

You see your prodigal’s life, you see the consequences of sin, and when you’re brutally honest, you see no change. Maybe you’ve been waiting and praying for many years for your prodigal to return home and you’re feeling desperate too, but feeling desperate isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Just like it was for my husband, it can be a step towards shedding off self-confidence and relying on God.

When a stander takes their focus off of their prodigal, God can help them to see Him so clearly that His promises are more real than the circumstances, and that is when a stander can truly let go, and give God all the glory, not because the circumstances have changed, but because their faith in Him has grown.

I can tell you from my experience, the change that occurred from my husband’s faith in God was the formula that brought me back home.

Don’t give up. With God there is always hope.

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