I know it is still technically the “Holiday” season and although we should be focusing on all the good of the season and the Reason for the season, it is the real world and life still happens. So, I pray the following excerpts from the book, Lies Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free, gives you a new perspective on the life we are living (No, it is not only for women.)

God is more concerned about changing me and glorifying Himself than about solving my problems (Romans 8:29).

…To demand a solution or an escape from that impossible boss, that financial situation, that health problem, or that messy marriage may cause us to forfeit a far higher good that He is seeking to bring about in our lives. How foolish and shortsighted it is to reject or resist problems in that may be the very means He has designed to mold us into the image of His Son.

It is impossible to be godly without suffering (1 Peter 5:10).

…In the book of Jeremiah, we find a vivid picture of what happens if we do not allow suffering to do its purifying work in our lives:

Moab has been at rest from youth,
like wine left on its dregs,
not poured from one jar to another—
she has not gone into exile.
So she tastes as she did,
and her aroma is unchanged
Jeremiah 48:11

In the process of making wine in Jeremiah’s day, the juice from the grapes was poured into a wineskin and left to sit for several weeks, until the bitter dregs or sediment settled onto the bottom. Then it was poured into another wineskin so more dregs could be separated  This process was repeated again and again, until the dregs had been removed and the wine was pure and sweet.

The nation of Moab had a history of relative ease and comfort; she had not been through the purifying process of being “poured” from suffering to suffering. As a result, the thick, bitter dregs of her skin remained in her—she was “unchanged.” Suffering is God’s means of pouring us from one jar to another —of unsettling us—so the dregs of self and sin can be separated out, until the pure, sweet wine of His Spirit is all that remains.

My suffering will not last forever (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

…All suffering is purposeful and intentional. God has a specific objective in mind for our suffering. He knows exactly the intensity and the duration that are needed to fulfill His purpose. He will not allow our suffering to last any longer or to be any more severe than is necessary to accomplish His will.

It’s not about me; it’s all about Him (Colossians 1:16-18, Revelation 4:11 ).

God’s eternal purposes and plans are far more important than the things that fill our vision and consume our thinking. My bank balance, my aches and pains, my hurt feelings, my needs and wants—these all pale into insignificance when I remember that “It’s not about me; it’s all about Him.”

…once we agree with God that we exist for His pleasure and His glory, we can accept whatever comes into our lives as part of His sovereign will and purpose. We will not resent, resist, to reject the “hard things,” but embrace them as friends, soverignly designed by God to make us like Jesus and to bring glory to Himself. We will be able to look into His face and say, “It’s not about me. It’s about You. If it please You, it pleases me. All that matters is that You are glorified.”