Let me just save you some time. These two attitudes/techniques depicted below won’t get you anywhere with God.
Believe me, I know.
I’ve done them.
And sometimes I still do! { Yea. Embarrassing admission. And even though it may not be on the outside…it’s happening on the inside! }
We may not want to grow up spiritually and emotionally—because it’s a lot of work—but if we want to achieve anything in life, we have to do that work.
And by “work” this can run the gamut from our attitudes, to learning to wait on God, to showing up for a job and submitting to a boss we don’t like, to staying in a tough marriage, to living the single life longer than you would like, to doing all the boring small steps that will get us to our big goals, and so on.
It’s a process, this growing up thing. This accepting that we will often have to wait before we get the results we want.
{ And sometimes those “results” are an inner working that needs to be done. }
And you will get weary in the process.
You will.
And you just might pitch a few fits with God.
Pout.
Fall to the ground in a heap.
INSIST that He answer now, NOW, NOW!
Pull the covers over your head and refuse to get out of bed.
Grumble and complain.
And you know what? God won’t love you any less.
Think about little kids who do pitch those fits and their patient parents who calmly tell them things like, “If you don’t get up, we can’t get to the park before it closes.” “You need to stop or we’re going home.” “Eat your broccoli and then we’ll get the ice cream cone.”
The parents don’t love their kids any less (in fact, some of the behavior—some of it—is kinda cute) but they know they can’t let them get away with the immature behavior or they’ll keep doing it. They will learn to use it as a manipulative tool. They won’t respect authority—that someone bigger and with more experience might know what’s best for them.
In a nutshell—they won’t ever grow up!
Same goes for us as adults in every aspect of our lives.
We won’t grow up and we won’t make any progress.
But it takes sooooo much time and sooooo much work to grow up.
But the time comes.
Time for the child to become an adult.
Time for the butterfly to emerge from the cocoon.
Time for the bud to bloom.
We’d all like the tough stages of life to zip by like the time-lapse photography we see in videos. Don’t we wish that could be applied to our own transformation process?!
But no matter how much we wish that it was so, no matter how many times we stomp our feet and declare it isn’t fair, no matter how much we whine and complain, we will still have to go through the process and trust that God knows exactly what He’s allowing in our lives.
That He knows that it’s usually the hard work and tough places in which we really grow in the most amazing ways. And that we learn that in submitting our control, He can guide us where He wants us to go—to what’s best for us and His good and perfect will for our lives. { Jesus take the wheel? 🙂 }
And He knows that at the right time, we will emerge into exactly what we are supposed to be.
This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed. Habakkuk 2:3
Trust the process.
Trust the timing.
Trust God.
And…stop pouting.
Don’t settle for less than fulfilling completely the potential that God had in mind for you when He brought you into existence, then brought you to Himself in a personal relationship. Yield your life to God’s purpose even when it may seem the very opposite of anything you may have thought you had wanted. While God’s purpose may be radically different than the plan you had laid out for your life, make no mistake about it, His plan is much greater and broader…it’s more lasting and impactful…than any plan you could come up with for yourself. ~ Anne Graham Lotz “The Daniel Prayer”