Step Three: Processing IT

I wish that God would simply act like He was pulling a thorn and do away with IT. I've often prayed this prayer: "God, You know I love You with all of my heart. I want nothing more than for You to do some Divine Emptying of all that is hindering me from following You without another thought getting in the way. I really believe my motives are pure. Reveal to me if I'm deluding myself. So - with all that in mind, why don't You just take IT away?"

Why doesn't He? Because the process matters. Understanding that is one of the most important parts to dealing with the things in your life that are haunting you and hurting you. But let's remember, not everything that you're dealing with is going to be removed, and the things that are removed may not be removed right away - for your benefit.

Let me give a personal example - one that hurts my memory, but if it helps someone, then that's the point of what I'm trying to say:

In Jr. High and early High School I had a serious skin problem. It was bad, to the point that my mother (bless her heart) spent many days bringing me to the dermatologist. Honestly, it was the worst thing in my life and I spent many nights wondering why I was going through this. But it did something for me, something extremely valuable to this day: It shut my mouth. I tended to have a quick response to people and a low tolerance for idiocy. But with this problem, it tempered me, I didn't want to draw any attention to myself so I kept quiet when my "natural" desire was to give a withering response to anyone who was saying or doing things that I found to be foolish, to put them in their place. It made me think twice before saying anything.

This change in my personality trait has served me well to this day. As a pastor, teacher, parent, I can't be blistering people at the first sign of something I disagree with. It allows me the time to look at both sides before speaking. It allows me to develop a much greater balance when thinking about issues instead of going with my first response. Simply put, I'm a more mature and effective Christian man because God didn't just take it away.

The process of dealing with this "IT" in my life also allowed God to develop in me a greater sensitivity to those who are dealing with things in their lives that are killing them. I know what I went through is not like cancer or anything like that - but believe me when I say in hindsight that going through that problem changed me for the better.

In Deuteronomy 7:22 God tells Israel that the land is theirs. The boundaries are already marked out, the enemies already have the target on their backs. Yet He says that they will grow into these pre-established boundaries because the process is matters. They won't have complete victory right away, it will take some time, for their own good. They need to go through the whole ordeal of small victory after small victory, as it will cause them to cling to God and knock out the things that have to be removed in their own hearts.

The prayer of Psalm 51 really matters here: "grant me a willing spirit to sustain me,"

We are directed to pray that we will have the will to sustain us while He works us through the process, instead of just quitting or settling for less. But as you work and pray to remove these things in your life that are killing you, you may need to think a little bit long-term and understand that God is preparing you and changing you and that this wouldn't happen if He simply blinked the IT out of your life.