Whoowee! Don’t we hate trials and tribulations? We simply don’t like them. We desperately beg God to remove all of them from our lives.

But God has a different agenda.

His plan, His desire, is to see believers mature into looking and behaving just like Jesus.

That means what we desperately need is not for the trials to disappear, but for them to build our ENDURANCE which causes our CHARACTER to develop and strengthen which in turn strengthens our CONFIDENT HOPE in His salvation.

The good news is that even though that trial, that problem, can hit us again and again, when we’ve developed these muscles: endurance, character, and confident hope, we will handle the trials and problems differently.

Had my husband’s near-fatal aneurysm happened 20 years earlier, I would have been a basket case. Inconsolable. Unable to pray. Railing against God. Begging for this trial to be done.

But I was a different woman, a different believer, in 2013 than I was in 1993. I was able to pray, “Your will be done, O God.” and mean it. Don’t get me wrong, I also begged for Jack’s healing, but was strangely content to walk with God through the trial.

I have learned over the years that it’s hard to yield control to God in this shaping He does in us, but it’s so much better if we do.

Let’s look at today’s trials and see where God is maturing us, then rejoice that He loves us enough to do so.

Coffee, Bible, Journal.