A friend of mine shared Tim Ross’s podcast “The Basement” with me the other day. Specifically, she shared Season 1 Episode 7 and said to start at the 30 min mark. Babey! Juliette Ross came through with the heat on this episode. Seriously, you must tune in. So on the podcast, she talked about the fact that it takes time to change. Renewal takes work. I’ll give you an illustration here. If you and your bestie went thrifting and you bought a cute dresser that you wanted to upcycle, renewing that dresser would take work. First, you would have to lug it into your car, lug it back out of the other side, take out the draws, take off the old handles, repair it as needed, sand it, buff it, stain or paint it, let it sit and cure or dry, change out the hardware and then put the drawers back in. Whew! You would have to put some elbow grease, time, energy, dollars, planning, and effort into it. Your restoration project would take days to complete! The restoration takes work.

Juliette went on to explain how faith essentially means “time” in that we have to trust and wait on God to do as He wills and promises --in time. In Samuel, the word renew means to renovate. So when she put those concepts together it came out like this: “The Lord knows that it takes time for you to renovate”. Your emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual healing, your spiritual growth, your character - it’s all being renewed and transformed. A process that, as an instant gratification generation we wish went faster, takes time.

Romans 12:2 says to be transformed by the renewing of your mind - we all know this takes time.
2 Corinthians 5:17 reminds you that you are a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come - you are undergoing some renovations - it takes time.
Isaiah 64:8 comforts us with the reminder that He is the potter and we are the clay in His hand. We surrender and allow Him time to craft us in the masterpieces He already set us apart to be

When one is renovating you have to make some decisions and plan some things out before you even start the process! You have to carefully consider what you want to keep and what you want to throw away. One has to make decisions on whether to tear this wall down and if a window should be placed in a certain spot. In addition to the fun decisions, you would also have to consider how much time it would take, the financial investment you would need, your skill level, and if you can DIY it or need to bring in professionals; also the labor and resources needed to complete the project. Renovation is not a 1-person project - it takes a team and, yup you guessed it --it takes time.

Our God is gracious to not only know that it takes us time, but He also brings people and resources our way to get the project done. He not only helps us count the cost but as our Source, he lovingly provides all the resources we need. Not half the resources - all! He supplies all our needs according to His riches in glory (Philippians 4:19)! That includes the resources of people, time, wisdom, His grace and mercy, finances, a babysitter, the gracious boss that is okay with you leaving an hour early or taking an extended lunch to make your therapist appointment. When you make the decision to prioritize your mental, emotional, and spiritual health, it won’t happen overnight, but God delights to see the work begin (Zechariah 4:10) and He rallies around you with the people, places, and things He knows you need for a successful renovation. This includes an overabundant supply of His Holy Spirit leading, guiding, and partnering with you through the process. The joy, peace, patience, self-control, goodness, faithfulness, love, meekness, and kindness you need for this overhaul can only come from the Spirit because ooo weee… in our humanness, we would sooner pop off on someone than respond to them in loving kindness when they have done us wrong.

God knows that it is a process and a journey you are on. 100% I believe that some things can change in an instant. From personal experience, however, I think that the majority of growth and healing takes time, and that used to frustrate me to no end! In the last year or so I have begun to see it more and more as an opportunity to be blessed. The time it takes to heal, grow, renew, and renovate your heart, mind, and soul is precious time with the Father. It beacons you to come near and walk with Him and talk with Him. It’s times like these when Heavenly Father reveals not only himself to you but reveals you to you as he does the work of restoring you to the original design He always had for you. That pruning and working through your stuff takes time, the time God stays by your side through. And oh what a harvest of blessings you reap from that time spent in the secret place tucked safely under the wing of your Father.

Renewal and restoration of your soul is hard work. It’s rehabilitation. Rehab, be it from drugs, from a physical injury, from a breakup, or from church hurt can be a long painful process. Often times this is the part where most people dip out because the real work begins. The process of restoration often takes longer than the time it took to cause the injury. You can break your arm in a ziplining accident the moment you hit the ground, but rehab to restore the function of that arm to what it was before the injury, takes months of physical therapy to rehabilitate that arm. The same is true for our emotional and mental hurts as well. For years after the person who hurt us has moved on we can find ourselves still in pain from the injury they caused. We are walking around like unfinished renovation projects. We started the work, we took steps towards our healing - and what a thing of beauty we were in the process of the building then poop! We stop because the work gets hard or we feel like it's taking too long. Then you know what happens… we allow squatters to take up residence in our heads and in our lives. We allow unproductive thoughts and people to move into our unfinished spaces. We allow poor influences to occupy our lives and take up residence while we are still unfinished renovations.

I want to be remarried someday. If you know me personally, then that statement just left you shook and gasping for breath lol. But The Lord has been working on me and softening my heart in areas I had allowed to get calloused and this is one of them. Even coming to the place where I can make this statement took work -2 years of work. A lot of behind-the-scenes renovation work has been taking place that has allowed me to make that statement seemingly suddenly and out of the blue. But ask the ones who know it’s taken a lot of rehab on my mind, heart, and soul to be able to say this out loud.

My most persistent prayer is that I would be ready for the man that God will bring i.e. that I would be a completed renovation project mentally and emotionally. Not a perfect one - perfection is not possible, but a more complete one that knows how to do the work of maintaining the property. There will be leaking pipes to fix, gutters to clear, a new roof every 10 years, and daily, weekly, and monthly chores to complete…but it is my prayer that the major work of overhauling and reconstruction i.e. healing, would be complete to the point that the home is comfortable and inviting to live in. Mentally, emotionally and spiritually I will be a multi-million dollar premier home on the other side of God working with, in, and around me. And I pray that my future husband has done the same work of restoration and renovation too before we meet. Daily I am doing the work to get my healing credit score up! I choose to do the work so that I no longer attract squatters only those with an emotional and mental healing credit score above 700 need apply. Only those willing to pay full price need to inquire. Handyman skills to maintain the work are a must! #NoSquattersAllowed #OnlyGodQualifiedApplicantsNeedApply #UnlessJesusSentYouImUnavailable

For healing to occur, friend, you must commit yourself to the rehab process. I know too well that it is long and painful, but oh what joy awaits you on the other side. Your mourning will be replaced with dancing for joy. God will replace your ashes with incredible beauty. It is indeed possible. This is my testimony and you can read all about it in my book His Daughter’s Cry - How our broken Prayers Connect Us to the Father’s Heart.

James 1:21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

The words “get rid of” come from the Greek word apotithimi. Apo means away and tithimi gives the picture of someone laying something down and at the same time pushing it away and beyond reach. In the New Testament, the word apothimi was frequently used to describe someone taking off their dirty, stinky clothes at the end of the day. What do we do with dirty clothes? We take them off and put them away in the hamper right? But our clothes don’t just fall off our bodies. We have to do the work of threading the buttons through the button holes, unzipping the zippers, threading our arms and legs through the holes, and picking up and putting the clothes in the hamper. It’s a process. And so as we take the time to do the work of mental, emotional, and spiritual rehab and renovation we are doing as James encouraged us to do - casting off wrong thoughts, attitudes, and actions in the right way. When you commit to and stick with partnering with Holy Spirit for your healing you are making the choice to remove those filthy, stinking garments from your life, to permanently lay them down and then deliberately push them out of your range forever…” This takes time, but the Lord delights to see the work begin and to partner with you through the process. His grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9) and His mercies are new every day (Lamentations 3:22-23).