Determine to Love
by our wants, feelings, and estimation of our needs. But there is another “good” that God is working on. He is using this period of time to continue the work of radical rescue and restoration that he has begun in us. There is yet more work God desires to do in our lives before we go to spend eternity with him. God does not settle for “good enough.” He loves us too much to sit back idly while we struggle with personal weakness, failure, and sin. He is not satisfied to leave us at the level of immaturity and foolishness we find ourselves in today. He has a character goal for you to attain in this life, and by his unrelenting grace and mercy you are going to get there. He is God. We are made in his likeness. His ultimate goal for us in this life is that we be further conformed to his image. So he will not stop doing good to us—good in the most important sense of the term, however painful it may be at times—for as long as we are on this earth. A Time of Preparation What does this mean for the here and now? It means this is not a time of slogging through hardships day after day, just hoping they will end soon. Yes, we wait for the day when our hardships will be over. Waiting and hoping are biblical and legitimate. But the issue for now is not the future. The issue for now is now . The question is not, “When will we get what we are waiting for?” but “What we will become as we wait?” Passages like Romans 5 and 8, James 1, and 1 Peter 1 remind us that God is not just working on bringing things to a final end. He is working on us ! The agenda during this moment is not destination , but preparation ; not “How can I get the good stuff ASAP?” but “How is God working to change me now in anticipation of then ?” Preparation is hard. Any athlete will tell you that competing is more fun than training. Yet all successful athletes put themselves through self-imposed torture because they recognize the vital importance of preparation. The hours in the gym, the early morning runs, the repetitive drills, the careful diet, the costly
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