Today’s devotion is based on Week 3 of “Resolve”: Trust the right person!! (WATCH HERE)
Trust the process?
One of the many things that my wife is good at is helping individuals better understand themselves and how best to use their gifts and talents. But it’s a process. To get to a conclusion takes a number of assessments, conversations, time in reflection, and coaching calls to figure it all out.
Individuals can be tempted to give up on the process because it is not an immediate answer. In fact, it can be a roller coaster of emotions as the process sorts itself out. However, for all those that she has helped, their clarity and satisfaction in using their gifts was worth the process.
It’s hard to trust a process when we don’t know what the outcome will be.
We can give up on the process and will never know the blessings that we miss out on.
The Lord invites us to trust the process.
But it’s tough because when we are in the middle of a problem, we want a solution yesterday. In our “get it now” culture, it’s hard to wait, engage the actions needed and “trust the process.”
But sometimes the process is where we learn to trust the most.
The issue was no wine. Mary told Jesus and then…
5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” (John 2:5-10)
If you were the Apostle John and standing nearby to watch this all playout, it had to cross your mind…”Fill the jars with water? How does that help? We need wine, not water.”
Imagine if you were one of the servants. Fill the water jars? Perhaps you were used to odd commands that didn’t make sense to you, but to fill water jars to solve a wine problem must have leveled up the odd requests they had received. Then to take a scoop from the jars and bring it to the master? Perhaps at this point the water was now wafting of a perfect wine smell. But it had to be a little tenuous to scoop what they new began as water and bring it to the master of the banquet to taste.
But they did as Jesus told them.
Jesus could have said, “Let there be more wine” and there would have been more wine. But he worked through a process to solve the wine problem. His mother Mary trusted he would do something. The servants did as Jesus said.
Problems we present to Jesus are not always a quick fix. Often there is a journey that we embark on that leads to the solution, but rarely does every step make sense or get shown to us in a super clear way. We have to trust the process through which God works.
Sometimes the process involves activity, even when it seems odd. Sometimes the process involves being still, even when you feel you have to do something.
Why trust the process? Because like in Cana, the one behind the process of showing the glory of God is God himself, Jesus Christ.
Remember, when God works in our lives, his ultimate goal is to show his glory and lead us to trust him more.
And when he chooses to make a process out of it…we can trust the process!
Apply: Perhaps you are in the middle of a challenge. Present it to the Lord. Pray for clarity to see and step confidently on the pathway of the process. Most importantly pray to see the glory of God and to have your faith strengthened.
Prayer: Lord God, thank you for the process you choose to work all my challenges for your glory and the strengthening of my faith. AMEN.