I enjoy working out and taking care of my body. Usually, at any given point, I’m working toward some sort of physical goal. Sometimes I’m cutting calories trying to lose fat, other times I eat a calorie surplus and lift weights to gain muscle, or I could be preparing for a race so my training and diet are geared toward peak performance.
No matter what phase I’m in, one often needed piece of advice, is “trust the process.” There can be times when the day to day progress is unnoticeable. If I’m cutting calories to lose fat, I don’t always see the weight on the scale go down. It can be discouraging when you are limiting your food intake, being extremely disciplined, and yet hop on the scale and see little to no progress.
In those moments, I have to trust the process and keep doing the work. I have to endure. There can be a number of reasons why the scale didn’t move on any given day, so I keep doing what I know will work. Sometimes it’s slow, sometimes you can’t see the end results or even imagine them, but if I’m going to reach my goal weight I have to stay disciplined. The one thing that will guarantee not reaching my goal is to give up and throw in the towel.
This principle applies to many things in life. Whether learning a language, practicing an instrument, or acquiring a new skill, we may not always see the day to day results. I’ve found this true spiritually as well. I can’t always see how my prayer time today changed me. I don’t always notice how today’s time in the word transformed my heart and mind. Somedays, I may even wonder if I’m growing spiritually at all.
Trust the process.
You may not see the day to day change, but if you continue to pursue the Lord through the spiritual disciplines, there will be change. God is working in you each time you listen to a biblical sermon, fast, pray, etc. We may not see daily results, but we often notice change over a longer span of time.
However, the worst thing you can do is get discouraged by what you can’t see and give up. We are so used to instant results, when we don’t see them immediately we assume whatever we are doing isn’t working. Satan whispers in our ear the uselessness of it all, and our flesh believes his lies.
Your time in the word, time in prayer, and the efforts you take in attending and serving in a local church are not in vain. God is growing and transforming you “from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18). He will complete the good work he began in you, so don’t let Satan or your flesh convince you that it’s all worthless. Keep enduring, and trust the process.
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