…Trust God in the Thing you Never Wanted
// by Michelle Weaver
January 14th 2025 was a life-altering day for our family. It was the day we found out that we were no longer welcome in Turkey. My husband and I were both put on a list by the Turkish government and deemed “suspicious” characters for our activities working with the local church and ministries around the country. Being put on the list is equivalent to a lifelong entry ban. We hadn’t done anything wrong other than being Christians.
After 20+ years of ministry it was an emotional blow that was hard to cope with. Its ramifications impacted everything—we lost our house, dear friends, a ministry that I dearly loved and most significantly for me, a full year that I thought I still had with our son, Elijah, who was an 11th grader at the time.
It’s not that we didn’t know such things were possible. We saw the writing on the wall several years ago and realized that many others like ourselves were being targeted and thrown out of the country. But I had prayed for years that we wouldn’t have to transition our kids while they were still in high school, let alone their last year of high school.
So, what do you do when God doesn’t answer your earnest prayers and chooses a different path for you? This has been the question I have been wrestling with this year. It has not been easy, but I can honestly say that I am learning in a new way that I can trust God’s heart towards His children. He is incredibly kind and meets us even in our darkest times of grief and suffering.
The other day I was listening to my Bible App read a familiar passage—Jeremiah 29—in a different translation than I normally read. I stopped short when I heard these words: “This is the message that the Lord has for those who were deported” (v.4).
Needless to say…my ears perked up! Jeremiah goes on to say that God wants those exiled to build houses, plant gardens and continue to live in the place He had sent them to. And then there is the beautiful command in verse 7: “Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive.”
I know that many of you will never experience deportation the same way that I have. However, I do believe that all of us as believers will at some point be put on a path that we would rather not be on. The question then becomes, “Will I trust God with this too? Or will I only follow Him when my story looks the way I want it to?”
I believe God’s challenge to the exiles in Jeremiah is also His challenge to us. In those times of doubt and questioning we are to keep praying and interceding for those around us as we seek to do good in the new place that He has brought us to. As we do so, we can rest in His promise given to those who find themselves on unexpected paths: “I know the plans I have for you, plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (v 11).