Tag Archives: trust the process

September 10, 2024 · 5:40 AM

While You Wait

I had read once that when you’re waiting your perception of time gets warped. Your mind tricks you into thinking it was three times longer than it actually is. I’ve experimented with groups where I would start a timer while they sat in silence. After a period of time, I would ask them to guess how long they sat there. Sure enough they were guessing two to three times the time they were there. I then like to ask what thoughts were going through their mind and what emotions were they experiencing the last time they had to wait at a restaurant or a retail establishment. It turns out we don’t like to wait and often get worked up in the process. Waiting is hard by itself. It’s even more difficult when you’re not sure it is going to end or if you’re going to get what you want. God uses these times to test us and grow us.

Abraham had to wait around 25 years for the promise of a son. God used that period in his life to grow his faith and to show him anything was possible. Joseph waited in a prison in Egypt for his dream to come true. While he was waiting, God was maturing and positioning him to fulfill the dreams. David went back to watching sleep while he waited after being anointed king. Then he spent years on the run living in the wilderness. God used that time to teach him how to shepherd people, win the hearts of a nation and develop leadership skills. In the Parable of the Ten Virgins, five waited patiently and did what they were supposed to do in that period. Five didn’t. What we do while we wait matters.

Lamentations 3:25 says, “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him” (ESV). Are you seeking God in the waiting or are you complaining? Has your mind told you it’s been too long? We must trim our wicks in our waiting so we’re ready to be used when He’s ready to fulfill His promise. We must let our endurance and faith increase when nothing seems to be happening. God may be positioning you and others and you don’t even know it. He may be developing skills as well. Don’t rush His process because the promise is on the other side of it. I don’t know how long you’ll have to wait, but God has a pattern of having His people wait. He also has a pattern of being faithful to those who do and to those who seek Him in the waiting.

Photo by Gabrielle Henderson on Unsplash

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March 4, 2024 · 5:24 AM

Blown Off Course

Have you ever tried to accomplish something, but keep running into roadblocks? No matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t keep things going in the right direction. If it could go wrong, it went wrong. In the end, you either gave up or finished nowhere near where you wanted to. You can either cry, complain or make the best of it. Things like this happen to me, especially when I’m trying to do what God has asked me to do. I’ll ask God why I’m going through so much trying to accomplish His will. I’ll even wonder if I heard Him correctly. In the end, I’ve learned to accept that God can make something good out of all my struggles. Even when it feels like I’ve failed or missed the objective, when I hand Him the reigns, He accomplishes more than I thought even in my perceived failures.

In Mark 6 Jesus had just fed the 5,000 families with the five loaves and two fish. Before He sent the crowd away, He sent the disciples across the lake and told them to go to Bethsaida on the northwest side. As they were on their way, they were hit with a sudden storm. The winds picked up and tossed the boat like it was going to be flipped over. The waves crashed against the boat threatening their lives. Verse 48 says they were straining with the oars trying to keep moving. Around three o’clock in the morning, Jesus came walking on the water to them in the middle of their struggle. When they choose to let Him in the boat, the winds stopped and they continued their journey landing at Gennesarat on the north east side. They missed their destination even with Jesus in the boat. However, the chapter ends with them ministering there and making a difference in the lives of the people in the wrong destination.

Psalm 37 is packed with wisdom, especially if your life feels like it’s been blown off course. Verse 5 says, “Give God the right to direct your life, and as you trust him along the way, you’ll find he pulled it off perfectly!” (TPT) There are two hard things for anyone to do in this verse to receive this promise. We must give God the right to direct our life accepting His desires over our own. We must also trust Him along the way in the middle of the storms when everything feels like it is against us. We just have to keep straining at the oars to keep it moving. Let Him worry about the destination. He can accomplish great things through us even at the wrong destination. He can make something good out of the times in our life when everything seems to be working against us trying to blow us off course. He is the one who causes everything to work together for good no matter when you feel like you didn’t reach your destination.

Photo by Aneta Hartmannová on Unsplash

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August 22, 2023 · 5:44 AM

Construction Zone

If you’ve ever worked in construction or had it done, you know it can get messy. I like to tell people to just close their curtains until we’re done, but they don’t. On every one of our jobs we’re going to disrupt their schedule. We’re going to tear up their yard. There’s also going to be a lot of trash piled up because new things come in boxes and the workers create their own trash as well. Things get a lot worse than they were before it gets better. It can be discouraging to the homeowner to see what looks like a chaotic mess. We gave them a picture of what’s coming, but it’s hard to see that design in the middle of construction. The homeowner has to learn to trust the builder and the process by which new things are constructed. No matter how difficult and messy it is during the process, they’re happy when they see the end result.

In Nehemiah 4, the workers in Jerusalem were in that messy middle. They had been doing construction on the walls that had been torn down. They knew they needed them for protection, but they were getting weary with the process. They were also being opposed as they worked because their enemy knew what rebuilding the walls meant. In verse 10 it says, “Then the people of Judah began to complain, ‘The workers are getting tired, and there is so much rubble to be moved. We will never be able to build the wall by ourselves’” (NLT). Between the rubble, the mess and their enemies, they were beginning to be discouraged in the process. Nehemiah reminded them that God was at work, concentrated their efforts and posted guards around the workers who were now armed. They were able to complete the construction of the wall and enjoy its benefits because they didn’t give up in the middle.

Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (ESV). You and I are God’s construction zone. We’re being made new and transformed by Him so we can do what we were created to do. It can get messy in the middle of His processes of regenerating us. There’s rubble from our old life, disruption of our schedules and an enemy trying to discourage us and stop the work. Don’t give up in the process. God has a design that will come together beautifully when you’ve gone through His construction process. The construction process is only for a season, but the end result is worth all that you go through. God is working in your life. He’s making all things new and preparing you for what’s ahead. Give Him creative control of your life and let Him be the foreman who makes decisions. He will do a greater job building your life than you ever could.

Photo by Danny Lau on Unsplash

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