25d (edited) • The Panther Queen/Sister Lidia
PRUNING ME FOR THE ASSIGNMENT
Flourish Friday 🌺
The Making of You
“We can also have joy when we have troubles. These troubles help us to become stronger. As we become stronger, we learn to trust God more. As we learn to trust God, we become people that God can accept. Then we confidently expect God to do great things for us.”
Romans 5:3–4 (EASY)
Family..
Have you ever found yourself asking God,
“Lord… what are You doing?”
Not from a place of rebellion…
Not because you’ve stopped trusting Him…
But because the road you’re walking looks nothing like the one you imagined.
You said yes to God…
Yet the journey became lonelier.
You remained faithful…
Yet doors continued to close.
You kept serving…
Yet you found yourself feeling empty because you were pouring into others more than you were being poured into.
You forgave…
Yet the relationship was never restored.
You prayed for growth…
But you didn’t realize growth would require pruning.
You prayed for influence…
But you didn’t know influence would first require hidden seasons.
You prayed for greater capacity…
But you didn’t know capacity would come through stretching.
Then one day, in the middle of it all, you find yourself looking toward heaven asking,
“Lord… what are You doing?”
I believe God’s answer is simple, yet profound.
“I’m making you.”
Not punishing you.
Not rejecting you.
Not overlooking you.
Not delaying you.
Making you.
There are some things God can only produce in us through the process.
Character cannot be microwaved.
Wisdom cannot be inherited.
Spiritual maturity cannot be downloaded.
Some lessons can only be learned by walking with God through valleys you never would have chosen for yourself.
The making of you is rarely comfortable.
Because every season of becoming requires the death of something that can no longer go where God is taking you.
Sometimes He prunes your relationships.
Sometimes He prunes your expectations.
Sometimes He prunes your pride.
Sometimes He prunes your dependence on people so you’ll become fully dependent on Him.
Pruning isn’t proof that God is taking something from you.
It’s proof that He’s preparing you to bear more fruit.
Then comes the stretching.
Stretching is uncomfortable because it demands more from you than yesterday required.
It stretches your faith.
Your patience.
Your obedience.
Your forgiveness.
Your capacity.
You begin to discover that what carried you in your last season isn’t enough for the season you’re entering now.
And then comes the crushing.
Nobody prays for the crushing.
Yet throughout Scripture, oil only flowed after olives were crushed.
Fragrance was released after perfume was broken.
Wine came after grapes were pressed.
Sometimes God allows pressure, not to destroy you, but to release what He placed inside of you long before you ever entered the process.
The journey has a way of revealing what’s really in our hearts.
Pressure doesn’t create our character.
It reveals it.
It reveals whether disappointment has made us bitter or whether we’ve become more dependent on God.
It reveals whether rejection has stolen our identity or whether we’ve rooted our identity in Christ.
It reveals whether we love God for His hand or simply because He is God.
Family, one of the greatest dangers of the process is allowing what happened to you to change who God created you to be.
It’s easy to become guarded after betrayal.
It’s easy to become cynical after disappointment.
It’s easy to stop serving after you’ve been overlooked.
It’s easy to stop trusting after your heart has been broken.
But don’t allow the very process God is using to shape you become the process that hardens you.
Keep your heart tender.
Forgive, even when it’s difficult.
Love without becoming naïve.
Set boundaries without building walls.
Protect your peace without losing your compassion.
Continue to serve, but draw your strength from God’s presence instead of people’s approval.
Because there will be seasons when people cannot give you what only God was designed to provide.
The people you expected to understand your journey may not.
The people you thought would celebrate your growth may become uncomfortable with it.
The people you poured into may not always pour back into you.
And while that hurts, it also teaches you one of the greatest lessons of spiritual maturity:
God will never allow people to become your source.
He loves you too much to let your life depend on someone who was only assigned to walk with you for a season.
As painful as it is, every goodbye isn’t punishment.
Sometimes it’s preparation.
Sometimes God removes people who have become too comfortable with the version of you that He’s trying to transform.
The journey isn’t just taking you somewhere.
It’s making someone.
It’s making a wiser you.
A humbler you.
A stronger you.
A more discerning you.
A more compassionate you.
A more surrendered you.
One day you’ll look back and realize…
It wasn’t the promotion that made you.
It wasn’t the breakthrough that made you.
It wasn’t the applause that made you.
It was the pruning.
It was the stretching.
It was the crushing.
It was the tears nobody knew you cried.
It was the prayers that seemed unanswered.
It was choosing to trust God when you couldn’t trace His hand.
The very season you wanted God to remove became the season He used to remake you.
So don’t quit in the middle of the making.
The process isn’t happening to you.
It’s happening for you.
Because God isn’t just preparing your next season.
He’s preparing the person who will walk into it.
Ask Yourself
1️⃣ What has God been trying to produce in me through this season that comfort never could?
2️⃣ Have I allowed disappointment to strengthen my faith, or has it quietly hardened my heart?
3️⃣ Where have I been expecting people to give me what only God can provide?
4️⃣ What relationships, expectations, or mindsets might God be pruning so I can bear greater fruit?
5️⃣ How has this season stretched my character, my faith, and my dependence on God?
6️⃣ Am I resisting the process, or am I trusting that God is making me through it?
7️⃣ When this season is over, what kind of person do I want to become because I walked through it with God?
Keys to Enduring the Making of You
1️⃣ Don’t confuse God’s silence with His absence.
The Potter does some of His greatest work while the clay is unable to speak.
2️⃣ Refuse to let the process redefine your character.
Let it deepen your faith, not diminish your love, joy, or compassion.
3️⃣ Stop chasing explanations and start embracing transformation.
God doesn’t always explain the process, but He always has purpose in it.
4️⃣ Guard your heart without hardening it. Wisdom builds healthy boundaries; bitterness builds walls.
5️⃣ Allow God to become your Source.
People will disappoint you, but God will never abandon what He has called.
6️⃣ Trust what God is producing, even when you can’t yet see the fruit.
Every season of pruning, stretching, and crushing is preparing you for greater purpose.
7️⃣ Remember that God is making more than your future…He’s making you.
The greatest reward of the journey isn’t what you’ll receive, but who you’ll become.
Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank You for loving us enough not to leave us where we are.
Even when we don’t understand the process, help us to trust Your heart.
When we are pruned, give us peace.
When we are stretched, give us endurance.
When we are crushed, remind us that You are releasing something beautiful through our surrender.
Protect our hearts from bitterness, offense, pride, and discouragement.
Teach us to depend on You more than we depend on people.
Help us to forgive without becoming hard, to love without losing wisdom, and to continue walking faithfully even when the road is lonely.
Thank You that every trial, every tear, and every season is being used for our good and Your glory.
Finish the work You’ve started in us, and may we become everything You created us to be.
In Jesus name,
Amen.
Decree & Declare
1️⃣ I decree and declare that every season of pruning, stretching, and refining is producing God’s perfect work in my life.
2️⃣ I decree and declare that I will not become bitter through the process; I will become more like Christ.
3️⃣ I decree and declare that my heart will remain tender, pure, and surrendered, regardless of what I experience.
4️⃣ I decree and declare that God is my source, my strength, and my sustainer, and I will not place that responsibility on people.
5️⃣ I decree and declare that every trial is increasing my wisdom, my discernment, my endurance, and my capacity.
6️⃣ I decree and declare that I will trust God’s process even when I cannot understand His timing.
7️⃣ I decree and declare that I am not being overlooked, delayed, or forgotten. I am being made into the person God has destined me to become, and I will flourish in His perfect time.
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PRUNING ME FOR THE ASSIGNMENT
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