
"Fear thou not; for I Am with thee: be not dismayed; for I Am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.” Isaiah 41:10
Although we are the first to encourage others, occasionally, even Christians wonder if God listens to our petitions. This is something we do not like to admit to non-Christians, and sometimes not even to other Christians, yet it is true. We really don’t want anyone to know that God may or may not be speaking with us; or, even worse, we may or may not be listening to God. It is not because our love is in question; it has more to do with our human frailty—our inquisitive nature. The inquisitive nature that got us into trouble in the first place; those imposing, nagging questions that were created by sin to disrupt our armor of faith.
We question our certainty that God will come through for us; we wonder whether He will come through in time, and we consume time querying what the outcome will be. Because of our human frailty, we forget that in God’s economy, the outcome is simply a by-product of the process, even though the process is the part most of us would prefer to skip.
In this era of our “faster is better” culture, it is difficult to wait for anything. Yet the slowness of the process is precisely the part that builds our fortitude—it molds and strengthens our character closer to the character of Jesus. The same goes for your individual circumstance. Your circumstance is part of the journey, and the journey is part of the process.
Wherever you are in your journey with God, embrace the process. Do not bother to try to rush through it; you will only get out of it after you have learned the necessary lesson or lessons to move on. Learn to strengthen your armor of faith so like the many characters in the Bible, you get through the process armed with the lessons you have learned for the next leg of the journey. Remember, Jesus has not left you; He is simply leading the way and waiting for you. L.
Study Reference: Isaiah 41:10
From: "Embracing The Process." In The Master's Hands: 365 Daily Devotions For Everyday Living.
Copyright © 2014 by Lavona E. Campbell
photo: Rui Silvera