The Only Way to Grow Long Term

If you’re never willing to walk through pain or suffering, you’ll never become all that God wants to grow you into in this life. And whatever God wants to grow you into now is preparation for eternity.

James put it this way,

The testing of your faith produces perseverance.

~ James 1:3 NIV

If you quit early, if you bail out now, you will cut short the process God is using to make you fully mature and complete.

Testing is never pleasant. It always results in loss – the loss of things that don’t belong to begin with. Testing often means the chipping and sanding away of the rough edges of our character. And it hurts.

But testing produces resilience. People who last with their integrity intact are people who have walked through hardship.

God never wastes a hurt. He always uses it to develop something in you so that you can weather the storms raging around you.