Surrendering to the Process
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
Surrendering to the process is not a masculine gift. In fact, the Bible is littered with stories of leaders who ran ahead of God because they were impatient. And they paid the price. Both ancient and modern men of faith can relate to the proverb, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 13:12). When the timing and means are not as we would have it, or the results feel unjust or unacceptable, we tend to fight the process. Fighting an unjust process is not a bad thing; Fighting God’s process of making you the man He created you to be is disastrous. Avoiding that sinkhole takes guts and a belief that God is more capable of deciding what’s needed and best for you at any given moment.
God’s dream of molding us into the image of Christ will involve discomfort, conflict, loss, and pain. Many times we preempt, deflect, or deny entry of these growth opportunities into our lives, missing God’s process all together. Eventually, because He loves us, He will corner us through circumstances until the pain exceeds our fear. So many times we wish we had done the hard thing and engaged the conflict or the process earlier. We should have trusted God to work instead of bailing and avoiding. We wish we had willingly volunteered rather than waited to comply. You might be there right now. If you’ll surrender and do the exact thing you don’t feel like doing, you’ll be glad you did.
Remember nothing happens to us unless it passes from God to us. And if it comes that way, it comes with a purpose — to make us like Christ.
Father, this is not heaven, it is earth and I’m here for a purpose.