I have found that God is not nearly as concerned with our happiness as He is our holiness. Yes, He wants to give us all good things pertaining to life and godliness, but the problem for us arrives when we apply our own ideas about what is good to what we expect God to call good.

Like a good father, He will do for us what is for our highest and best good, even if it doesn’t feel good to us now. Understanding this truth is crucial if we are going to navigate our lives and relationships with humility and avoid the confusion that comes from faulty thinking that can’t see beyond the immediate.

When we approach relationships with the understanding that they don’t just exist primarily to make us happy, but to make us holy, we can begin the sometimes painful process of inner healing.

God desires truth in the inward parts. There is no way to come to the understanding of the truth while at the same time pointing our finger towards our outward circumstances and the people in our lives as the source of our discontent or misery.

Let’s all step forward into every day, confident that the Lord is making us into what He desires us to be, as a Potter forming clay. When we cooperate with the process by being playable in His hands, we are transformed into the image of Jesus.

Choose to let your relationships and circumstances bring you deeper revelation, not just about life and others, but about God and yourself. If you have been praying for clean hands and a pure heart, don’t be surprised when you are given opportunities to exhibit Christ-likeness in situations that require the grace of God to do so.

Learn to enjoy the spiritual exercises that you are given to grow your love muscle. When pain comes in the process, know that pain is revealing an injury that needs the healing touch of the Father so that your love will grow stronger and more fearless. We are going from glory to glory. Keep an eternal perspective and it will ward off self-pity, bitterness, unforgiveness and the like.

Jesus was the first born among many brothers and sisters. You are a child of God.