Suffering produces perseverance....

Hello my fabulous community of amazing people! I hope this post finds each of you doing very very well. I'm sorry I've been absent these past few days. God has been doing quite a work on my heart and it is finally today that I am able to be able to comprehend what he is doing well enough to now be able to express to all of you what exactly it is. So, these past few days, I would say that the Lord has been working out those things which have hindered my witness to others and it has actually been something that has been present in my life for golly, years? What this was, was having more dependence on people or the things of this world over that of my God. How and why would I ever allow myself to do such a thing? Happens. Through becoming busy or letting time in the Word slide by the wayside, happens. For quite some time now, God has constantly been teaching me this lesson: Renewal of the mind. Renewal of the mind. Oh, did I mention.....renewal of the mind? But first, before diving into this, I want to talk about how these past weeks have been excruciatingly painful to the core of my very being. And I am not being dramatic. Some extremely tough life lessons have been presented to me and wow. So, let's chat about the header for this post, "Suffering produces perseverance..." This passage can be found in Romans 5:3-5. Here it is in full: " Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." Incredible. Suffering that is done in us and around is....we have hope that this WILL RESOLVE always with God's love which is the absolutely most beautiful thing in this life. It is. Look these passages up if you don't believe me. Romans 5:8; Romans 8:37-39 ; Jn 3:16; 1 John 4:9-12. Just cut and copy these into Google browser and take a looksy...Go on now...then come back to finish this post. Welcome back. God's love. Pretty sweet huh? I'd say so! Now back to suffering. Suffering might look different for everyone...but lately for me...I would say that suffering comes due to my lack of transforming my mind. Negative thought patterns being allowed to take root. Our thought life will determine our actions. And depending on what thought patterns take root...your actions could be pretty poor. In Romans 8, Paul lays out an incredible equation about this. Let me share it with you: a. Mind on the flesh=life according to the flesh which will result in being made captive to the things of this world and therefore we will not be walking in the freedom that God desires each of us to walk in...a freedom characterized by unremarkable peace because we are one with a holy God. Now, b. Mind on the Spirit=life according to the Spirit which will result in being alive and at peace. We please God when we set our minds on the Spirit, who is the very element of that which is life. Life that Created the Heavens and the Earth (Gen 1) and life that was able to raise Jesus FROM DEATH into LIFE! (Romans 8:11). So, I have to beg myself the question: What am I going to determine of myself to do with my thought life? Do I want to be held captive or do I want to be free? Hmmm....shouldn't be too difficult to decide what I want...but when the rubber meets the road, folks, its easy to choose captive. BUT, this does not have to end here. Instead, what I have now set my mind to doing is to will my mind to strain towards allowing my mind to be upon the Spirit than that of the flesh. Difficult. You bet. My natural tendencies as a human being are to be negative, selfish, fearful, lustful, immoral and you name it...and I want to do that naturally all the time. BUT, because I have chosen Christ as my Savior and to live like Him, I have now the "power option" as I like to call it, to choose freedom by putting to death my "natural" tendencies, so that I might become alive in Him and in the Spirit, and therefore be an incredible witness to others! To be able to pour into their life as if Christ himself where here to pour into their lives. I want nothing more. I desire no great destiny than this. It takes focus. It takes strain and it feels very much as though I am suffering....and I am because I am having to kill, murder, put to death, choke out (you get the picture) those things that feel as natural as an arm or my heart! But again, because I choose Jesus over that of my own desires, I will suffer and know that this suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope.... Beloved, if you are going through a rough time, know that if you stand on his promises that in the suffering he is near, know that you will get through this. For in Christ, we do not have a God who can not sympathize with our suffering, rather we have a God who stepped down from his glorious thrown room into our broken world. We have a God who died a criminal's death so that we might be able to know that he understands what we are going through in this world when we struggle. And there is hope in this God, for he promises that at the end of it all, He will bring us close to him for eternity...free of suffering and alive in Him.