The Process

 

I have been feeling some anxiety about starting Physical Therapy again. This time it will be on my legs. I have been in pain and have had trouble walking for quite some time. This past year has been the worst. I seriously thought I was going to need a wheelchair. However, I am still fighting and not giving up. I will press on no matter how scary and dreadful the process of physical therapy is. I have done it once before and have gotten some relief and I am better for it. But still, the anxiety is in the actual process. The needles, the commitment, the time, the pain, the mental and emotional stress. I know what the outcome will be but getting there is the hard part. I began to start praying and asking God what I needed to learn from this.

One day I was talking to someone close to me and the subject came up about why people go to church. Sometimes we go seeking instant gratification and instant blessings. I say “we” because we have all been there to some degree. The phrase “the process” popped into my head. I started to think about the process of going through physical therapy is much like the process of sanctification. I know that physical therapy will get me to where I need to be in my health, just like I know that He has already accomplished for us what the process is working in us. Anyone who is walking with the Lord will experience “the process.”

I have had some major victories in the last year and have felt the presence of God like I never have before and now there is more silence and I feel like I am going through a season of affliction. I feel tempted to just lay in bed and pull the covers over my head. God wants to take us through the process so that we can learn to trust Him more. Jenny calls it “level up.” We level up by making it through the process. We need to level up so that we can reach our purpose and we must do what glorifies God.

We have all heard the phrase “trust the process.” Especially if we have been in a gym. The process of working out and getting fit is grueling and it takes commitment to stick to it and see it through. Our walk is not all sunshine and rainbows. It is challenging work and takes dedication, much like the challenging work and dedication it takes to build muscle. Even today when I went to the doctor, we were talking about my leg muscles, and she told me that to build muscle they must break apart for them to build back stronger. I know I have heard this before, but it was significant to hear it again today. God is always building you even when it seems like He is breaking you. To truly trust the process is to trust in Him.

He knows the process, so I trust Him.

Even though the process is hard, and I still get tempted to stay in bed and pull the covers over my head, I know that God is with me, and He will never leave me or forsake me. Today, He showed up at the doctor’s office. It was like it was Him speaking through the doctor telling me to stay the course and press on. I left that doctor’s office feeling like I was just woken up from a dream. So, I am not afraid. God is giving me the strength to face this head-on. I will not be hiding under my covers. I am going to be on the front line fighting this to the end. Giving God all the glory.

On the day that we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, God began the process of sanctification, and it is completed by Him. While we are working out our own salvation, God is at work as well. He is working in us for His purpose and His glory. No one is exempt from the process of sanctification. However, the good news is that Jesus is our sanctification and because he finished His work in his life, death, and resurrection we know what our outcome will be. We know what is waiting for us on the other side of the process.

For by a single offering, He has perfected for all those who are being sanctified. Hebrews 10:14

And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it. Thessalonians 5:23,24