suffering produces perseverance, character, hope...

To be blunt, God is really testing me and strengthening me...and to be honest..its bittersweet. Its really hard sometimes because I get to a point where its this fork in the road and I"m not sure what to do! I realized in my life how often I run to people instead of God. People can't handle the problems, only God! Yes, we can go to each other for advice, yes we can pray and be there for that person but honestly, people can't fix your problems..only God! I feel like God is stripping away every "lifeline" I use to have when I got that "fork in the road" situation going on. I"m learning so much of what it means to have PATIENT ENDURANCE. Do you know what that means? Well, God has been showing me that, when you want to lose it, or you want to judge someone, or you want do something out of your own fleshly desires (sinful desires) you have the STRENGTH not to do it! You endure the suffering that your flesh (the sinful nature) puts on you because you resist it! Think of it this way...your climbing a mountain and all of a sudden you cut your leg really bad..you're bleeding and you can't stand the pain..you feel like you can't go on..BUT YET, you are determined to get back to the camp to get morphine and bandages because the pain is SO intense. You are SO anxious to reach back to camp, but you have to go through the suffering of getting back to the camp with a leg bleeding and hurting so bad, but you have the determination to get back..otherwise..you'll bleed to death! The thing is, what i"m trying to say (not sure if that example helped), when are flesh is fighting against us, we have to fight back with our spirit! We have to keep going no matter how much our fleshly desires want us to sin! The thing we have to remember most, CLAIM THIS AND CLING TO IT: "God has given everything we need for living a godly life" (1 Peter 1:3). So therefore.. YOU CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS YOU! (phil 4:13) No matter how bad your flesh wants to fight back! You can beat it with the spirit God has given you! "Supplement faith with generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with PATIENT ENDURANCE, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love for everyone!" (1 Peter 1:5-7). I"m serious guys! Please, we are all on the same team! We are all after one goal and that is being with Jesus! whats the purpose?? The purpose is to be with Him forever, to live as we were called to live. We want to be victorious! and we can only do that with Christ! So how do we train?? Its like a sport..you want to win right? you want to be good at what you do right?? so what do you do? You Train! You discipline yourselves..you run laps, you lift weights, you eat right! Same with this Christian race, we resist temptation, we get rid of things that are binding us down, things we are controlled by, ungodliness, we seek the Lord! I encourage you with this because I"m going through it and I'm up against something that I do not know what the Lord wants me to do in this situation...I can see the good, but I can see the hinderance! keep running the race guys!! Keep training, keep running with a purpose, and believe you are running for the goal..JESUS!!