Have you ever noticed how quickly responsibility can creep in when something important has not yet happened?

You remain faithful. You continue praying. You grow. You prepare. And yet, after a while, an unspoken pressure begins to build — the sense that perhaps you should be doing more to help God along.

This is especially true for women who are waiting for marriage. What often begins as hope can slowly turn into effort, and effort can quietly become striving.

But Scripture introduces us to a very different kind of security.

In Psalm 77, the psalmist reflects on the moment God led Israel through the Red Sea and writes, “Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen.”

There was a path, even though no one could see it.

Recently, Kevin and I were talking about this account, and something about it caught my attention in a fresh way. The Israelites did not cross the sea as a small travelling party. This was an entire community — families with children, older men and women, animals, and carts carrying everything they had gathered as they left Egypt.

They were not equipped for unstable ground.

Yet God led them across on dry land.

The more I considered it, the more it struck me that the Lord did not simply remove the water. He guided them to the exact place where the seabed would support the weight of their journey. What they stepped onto had already been prepared for them.

Years ago, when I was living in Barbados, I went down to the ocean floor in a submarine. What surprised me was how uneven the seabed actually is. There are deep valleys, rising formations, and unexpected ridges. It is far from the smooth stretch we sometimes picture.

That experience returned to my mind as we talked, because it highlighted something easy to overlook: when God made a way through the sea, He was leading His people across terrain He understood completely, even though they knew nothing about it.

And is that not still His way?

God never asks us to chart a course. He asks us to stay close enough to follow.

For some reading this today, the tension lies in the fear of missing what God has promised. Questions surface quietly: What if I am not positioning myself well enough? What if I overlook the opportunity? What if everyone else moves forward while I remain here?

I understand that space more personally than I can fully capture in a paragraph.

Many years ago, the Lord spoke to my heart that my husband would be American. When time passed and a significant relationship ended, it would have been easy to conclude that I had misunderstood God entirely. There is a particular kind of disappointment that tries to convince you that you have somehow stepped outside of His plan.

But God had not lost sight of where I was, and He had certainly not forgotten where He was leading me.

What I could not see then was that the pathway still existed.

In time, and in a way only God could orchestrate, He led my husband and me together. Looking back now, I can see that the Lord was not reacting to my life as it unfolded. He was guiding me along a route He already understood.

That is why I am careful when I encourage women in seasons of waiting. This is not theory to me. It is the faithfulness of God that I have watched unfold.

Trust does not mean we disengage from life. We continue to grow, to respond to God, and to walk through the doors He opens. But trust does free us from the exhausting belief that everything depends on our effort.

There is a meaningful difference between living intentionally and striving anxiously.

One is rooted in confidence.

The other is driven by fear.

If God knows where you are, and He knows where you are going, then He is also fully aware of what it will take to bring those two points together.

Including the relationship you may be praying for.

Scripture says in Isaiah 43:16 that the Lord “makes a way in the sea and a path through the mighty waters.” Notice the language — He does not search for a way; He makes one.

So if your heart has grown tired, or if you have begun to wonder whether you must force what God has promised, allow this to reassure you:

You are not responsible for manufacturing your future.

You are invited to walk with the One who already sees it clearly.

The Israelites could not have pointed out that pathway before the waters parted. Yet when the moment came, the ground beneath their feet was firm enough to carry them safely to the other side.

God is no less attentive to the details of your life.

You are not lost.
You are not behind.
And you are not forgotten.

The path may not yet be visible, but it is known to Him.

Stay near to the Lord. Continue to entrust your life to His wisdom. When it is time to move, He is more than able to place your feet on ground that will hold you.

He knows where you are.
He knows where you are going.
And He knows exactly how to get you there.