Do you ever feel like you’re spinning your wheels for nothing?  There are times it happens to all of us and whether its work, relationships, or ministry, it is easy to get discouraged when things don’t turn out the way we think they should.  I’ve come to realize part of the problem is we’re results oriented instead of process oriented.  If we don’t get the results we expected, we feel like we failed.  We don’t grasp the saying, “Life is an adventure, not a destination.”
Monday of this week I received a phone call from one of my friends in a restoration center.  She was done…not as in finished with the steps of the program and graduating, rather, done as in quitting.  She’d had it.  It was hard.  She was ready to quit and said I wasn’t going to talk her out of it.  Thankfully, I didn’t have to be the one to talk her out of it.  With a deep breath, I asked the Holy Spirit to talk to her.  By the end of the conversation, she said she’d go back and stay through the program.  Crisis averted, or so I thought.  Two days later, I get another phone call from her.  I knew it couldn’t be good because we’re only supposed to get to talk on Saturdays.  This time she was serious; she was leaving.  She wouldn’t allow me to talk.  I guess she knew she wouldn’t win against the Holy Spirit.  She was supposed to be on a bus out of there last night.  I have yet to hear if it happened. I’m praying the Lord intervened and she stayed.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t upset, frustrated, and a little angry with her walking away from the help she desperately needs. As a victim of human trafficking, the wounds are deep and multifaceted.  I’ve been so desperate for her to find freedom from the demons that haunt her, I took it a bit personal when she walked away from her second restoration center in six months.  The first one lasted thirty hours so we’ve made progress. She lasted for thirty days this time.
Fortunately for us, God is all about the process. He knows great things take time and nothing is ever wasted.  As I struggled with my friend’s decision, He reminded me sometime these things take time. 1 Corinthians 3:6 says, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.”  God can heal people instantly, but sometimes He requires a little work on our part and He allows others to get involved in the healing process [2 Kings 5:1-14, Matthew 9:22, and Mark 10:52].
I don’t know where my friend is right now, physically or spiritually, but I do know she is not alone [Deuteronomy 31:6, 8, Joshua 1:5].  I know I am not the only one interceding for her and I know she can run and try to hide, but she’ll never hide from God [Hebrews 4:13].  Eventually, she will bend.  It’s just a matter of time.  As Beth Moore put it, “You can bend your knees or He will break your legs, but either way, you’re going down.”  My friend doesn’t just have the target of the enemy upon her, she has the target of God on her and He is pursuing her [John 10:10].
What about you? Have you been frustrated recently because things haven’t gone as you expected?  God may be in the middle of the process of working things out.  Hang onto Him in the meantime.  You can trust Him.