Friday Fight 87 - The Perspective of Process or Product

Every Friday, when I wake and pray, God places something on my heart to help me fight darkness beginning in our minds. Today is FF87.

What if I told you that every bad thing in your life, past or present, was a stepping-stone towards your next greatest blessing? What is your perspective on the process VS. the product? Do we think of math terms or perhaps assessment categories? For this lesson, let's consider the product as a goal attained; the process is the time it took to get there.

The Perspective of Process or Product:

Let's look at a few major life events to help us apply this. Suppose we have applied for a new job, and finally, we get the call offering us a position that we accept. We may believe we have reached our end goal, attaining the desires of our heart, or even an answer to prayer. But what happens to our hearts and minds when we THINK we have accomplished everything we need to do to get there? It can get tricky when we start focusing on the result and perhaps not noticing other areas where God is moving. Yes, the job is a blessing but certainly not the end; it is part of a process that brings us to something even more significant that God has planned for us. Sometimes the process can be filled with various trials that God uses to increase our faithfulness and love for Him.

Now let’s reconcile this to other areas of life, for example, marriage. First, we begin with dating, then the proposal, the planning, and then the wedding, and finally, we have reached the product of all of our hard work.

Too often, we can get so caught up in focusing on the end gain that we miss that the process of the journey is also necessary. But unfortunately, when we lose focus, we also miss out on these periods of positional progress, where we learn, grow, and where God stretches us to fulfill His calling on our lives.

Now let's reapply these terms to gifts from God like healing. Do we only think of healing as an end result? If so, we might miss the opportunity to learn that healing is an ongoing process. If you try to skip the process, you will miss all the blessings God has placed in between. Of additional significance we must remember that the product is just the beginning of a new process. If we miss that, we become stagnant, and just like stagnant water, things begin to smell and become bug infested.

How does Satan work? Darkness manipulates us during any process, hoping we only focus on the destination, not what God wants us to learn in the journey.

Let's take time to focus on the areas of our lives we are praying for with the expectation of an end goal, but also the value in walking in God's will. At the end of the day, our process and product are entirely dependent on our perspective. If we maintain a heart of stone instead of being in a constant state of surrender to The Throne, we will miss the lessons God is trying to teach us throughout our journey. So, if you are walking through a transitional season, and you feel as though you are just waiting for that one big next thing, I want to encourage you to focus on the presence of God. If you shift your focus and fix your eyes on the Lord, He WILL teach you something that can change the product.

2 Corinthians 3:5

Pastor Shannon

New Life Calvert