There is a way of walking that keeps your eyes on the next step instead of the scoreboard. In football they call it the process. You do not think about the championship or the final score. You do not carry the last play into this one. You pour everything you have into the moment in front of you. Then you do it again. The results take care of themselves if the process is right.
The Christian walk works the same way, only deeper. The outcomes that matter most are not yours to manufacture. The path gets straightened in the accumulation of small acknowledgments, not by managing the final result yourself. Your part is the next play. His part is the rest.
The next play is the return of your attention to Him right where you are. It is the decision to trust in this moment instead of leaning on your own understanding. It is the acknowledgment of Him in the ordinary choice in front of you. Yesterday's faithfulness does not carry today. Today must be lived. Tomorrow is not yet yours.
When your eyes stay on the scoreboard you will be jerked around. The scoreboard shows the news, the problem that will not move, the prayer that has not been answered on your timetable, the quiet ordinary days that do not feel like progress. Anxiety grows there. Discouragement grows there. The temptation to quit grows there. But the scoreboard is not your assignment. The next play is.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. That is process language. All your ways means the series of moments you actually inhabit. The acknowledgment is the execution. You do not have to see the whole season. You have to play the play in front of you.
Take up your cross daily. That is the same reality. The persistent widow kept coming back. She did not control the judge's final decision. She controlled whether she would cry out again. Jesus said that is how we are not to lose heart. The process of returning, of crying out, of acknowledging Him again, is the mark of those who belong to Him.
This is not self generated grit. It is the fruit of abiding. The branch does not manufacture fruit by force of will. It stays connected. The small returns of attention keep the connection real so the Spirit can produce what only He can produce. Faith, hope, love, joy, and peace show up in the ordinary choices when the eyes stay on Him instead of the scoreboard.
Your next play might be returning your mind to what is true when it starts to spin. It might be a brief acknowledgment of Him in a decision you would rather control. It might be crying out again instead of deciding the prayer is useless. It might be choosing love in the conversation in front of you rather than keeping score of the other person. It might be reordering one part of the day so that seeking His kingdom is not left for later. Do that play. Then the next one.
You can live with the results whatever they are because the decisive victory is already His. Your life is already hidden with Christ. The throne is His. The process of returning to Him again and again is the walk. It is how you stay in the center of what He is doing. It is how the path gets straightened without you having to straighten it yourself.
Please join with your brother in praying over the prayer targets today.
Glory to God
grace and peace
