Embrace The Process

“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” - James 1:4 MSG

God is a God of process.

Everything is done in His timing and His way. 

Through process there is freedom and deliverance, but it takes time – and in our humanity, we don’t like to wait. We want instantaneous results … or at least I do. 

I’ve been dealing with rejection and offense for quite a while now, and I now believe I was looking at it wrong. I was looking at it through the lens of a cycle, you know wash, rinse, repeat. But perhaps the Lord has been processing me through it in a different way, HIS way. I’ll liken the wash, rinse, repeat cycle to doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results (that’s also the definition of insanity). However, God’s is different, in the vain that He never does the same thing twice. Sometimes the process takes doubling back on a certain thing, but from a different avenue. Think of it as if we were detangling a necklace that was fully knotted. In order to fully untangle it, you have to take your time with each knot – and sometimes you have to take different angles and approaches to untangle it. Untangling a necklace is truly a process, but if you try to rush that process you risk more damage. I liken that to how God processes us through testing, trials, and just life’s circumstances.

And if you didn’t know, God is ALWAYS speaking in the process. And in order to receive guidance and instructions on how to get through the process it requires a level of listening, it requires a level of stillness. 

I’ve learned this very thing as the Lord is processing me through rejection and offense, but I’ve been trying to rush through it. But when these things or anything for that matter are deeply rooted, like that entangled and knotted necklace, it takes time and patience. We (me included) try to rush the process because it doesn’t feel good, or we try to come out of the process prematurely, only to realize that we aren’t quite there yet – we aren’t healed at 100% just yet. Sometimes the process is constant exposure to the thing but from different angles and perspectives. It’s constant testing and challenges directly from that thing. God is testing our reaction and responses.

Listen, I know for a fact that He has been testing my reactions and responses to situations that perceive rejection and situations that force me to choose or not choose offense. 

What I’ve recently come to realize in this is that, the only way for God to process us through to freedom and deliverance is peace and surrender. We have to make peace with it, it’s not a recommendation - it’s a requirement. We have to surrender to the process. Nothing is instantaneous, it’s truly hard to learn lessons with an instant fix. It’s hard to see the progression and growth with an instant fix. Trust in God is VITAL throughout the process, because only He knows how much time it’ll take. We can try and rush the process if we want too, but we’re more than likely to end up more entangled than we were before. And here comes God having to process through from a different angle or perspective, there’s grace even in that. 

Honestly, if the process were instantaneous to that degree, we wouldn’t even need God. 

The process helps us to see clearly the things that were deeply hidden and covered up. The things that have kept us from being completely processed out. It reveals that perhaps there needs to be another route taken to uncover. When you keep trying to process things one way over and over again, you keep yourself bound in a cycle. But if you know God, like I said earlier, He never does the same thing twice. We can see that in the evidence of how He speaks - it’s never in the same way. 

Remember God always has our best interest at heart, he knows what’s best for us. He knows what it takes to reach total deliverance, healing and freedom. And not only does it require peace of mind, it requires surrender, and it requires trust. Trusting that God will never allow you to remain the same, as long as you embrace the process.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” - Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)