It is no news that getting results has a lot to do with learning to embrace the process. A lot of us however get impatient in the midst of the process. Going through the process can be frustrating I must admit, considering the fact that I have not just had to go through the process, but I am presently going through the process in several areas of my life.
I am aware that quite a lot of people are usually quick to say ” Quit talking about the process, you don’t know what I had to go through or what I am going through”. Funny how, that’s exactly how I feel when I hear someone talk about the process until I hear them share their story and leave me awestruck and repentant due to my unreasonable and quick assumptions.
I was in a meeting recently and I heard several beautiful, successful and courageous women speak on a topic that directly relates to a process I have had to embrace for quite sometime now. As each speaker spoke, I quietly spoke to my heart about how much I have been living in deception, thinking no one understands what it feels like to have to wait for God’s promise for almost a decade.
Each of these amazing speakers had to wait for almost a decade, exactly a decade , 2 decades , or more before they were able to get what they had thought was going to come to them on a platter of gold. One lesson I learnt from all their stories is that the beauty of embracing the process is in looking back at the darkest, loneliest and undeniably helpless moments and realizing that by His grace, I stayed focused, determined, and faithful to God despite the alternative routes and all sort of unspeakable things that could have made a mess of my testimony.
Everyone used by God in the Bible went through the process before they could become who He had called them to be, this includes Jesus. He went through the process of living in a human womb for 9 months, growing up as a child , suffering for no just cause, experiencing betrayal and abandonment, death and resurrection and now He is glorified and sitted at the right hand of the Father.
Galatians 4:4
“But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under law.”
Abraham, Joseph, David, apostle Paul, just to mention a few all went through the process and as a result, they learnt to build character, grow in faith, perseverance, and absolute trust in God no matter where they found themselves.
TRUST HIS TIMING
Ecclesiastes 3:1-11, Proverbs 3:5-6
As much as I would love to believe some new teachings flying around, stating that we must have all we ask for the moment we ask for it, it just is so false and cannot be believed because the Scriptire states clearly the issue of times and seasons. God definitely answers prayers but we must not throw away the truth of His Word that “He makes all things beautiful in His own time”. You may not see what He is doing but as long as you abide in Him, you can be sure He is getting you rooted and will in due time make manifest His will in your life for His own glory.
PREPARE
Hebrews 12:11, Romans 8:28
Just like the Chinese bamboo tree that makes the sower look stupid while he is watering and tending it for about 5 years before he sees any tangible and awesome result, so is the issue of the training Or preparation period for us as believers. At such times, a lot of people will mock us, act insensitively towards our plight as we go through the process, so much that they might compare our lives with that of others, not knowing that a bamboo tree’s timing differs from that of a tree that yields its fruit within the first or second year. Be focused as you go through the trainings because getting distracted by the achievement of others might get you disconnected from you own God- given plan and purpose. Joseph is a practical example of someone who did not lose focus while he prepared for the activation of his destiny. While his other brothers enjoyed in his father’s house, he gladly endured the trainings as a slave, an accused, an ex- convict who later became a renowned leader in a foreign land ( the same land where he was convicted). It sure must have been a a tough journey for a favorite son of his father, who previously had everything at his beck and call but he never let the past rob him of his future. He chose to learn all that he needed to learn for the greater assignment God was going to commit into his hands. The time of of preparation is never a waste. Just like the Bamboo tree, even when you feel like nothing is happening now as you prepare, the truth is you are getting rooted.
COMMENCE
Luke 19:12- 26, Genesis 40:4-7, Genesis 41: 1-44
The excuse a lot of people give for not doing anything is that they do not know where to start from. It is as simple as starting from where you are, with what you have and that’s it! God is not a waster of resources. The trainings He puts us through is not to be kept for the later years of our lives, else Jesus would not have amazed his listeners in the Temple when He was just 12 years old, meanwhile , He started His ministry at age 30. Quit giving unnecessary excuses. Our gifts and talents are not to be left unused, else it makes us unfruitful or unproductive servants. Someone needs what you already have, yet you simply want to sit back and do nothing with it while you desire more? It does not work that way in the Kingdom. We simply start with what we have and continue to develop ourselves in the process.
Joseph was busy making use of his gift while in the prison, meanwhile he could have chosen to keep to himself and decide not to be a blessing while he was going through the process, considering that he was not guilty of the offense he was accused of. The same gift is what got him out of the prison at the appointed time. Start something as you go through the process.
There is a precise and designed purpose for which we were all created and it comes with various processes that ultimately leads us into His intended plan. There is a need for us to embrace the process, knowing fully well that there is nothing we will pick up that He asked us to do that will cause us unnecesary loss but it will only take us closer to Him and draw us nearer to His purpose for our lives.
The process is meant to get me to where I ought to be and not necessarily where I want to be.
#EmbraceTheProcess.
Author Profile
- Temitope is the founder of thesoulmeal.com, an online platform that she shares with her God-given spiritual family and friends. She is a speaker, teacher and youth counselor. She is passionate about inspiring people to find their identity in Christ. Catch her interviewing inspiring leaders on Tongue of the Learned Podcast
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