The conflict you’re having is not primarily about them; God is working in this conflict to reveal something about you.
Never be satisfied with where you are in the area of spiritual growth. Cultivate an insatiability for more of God by examining your weaknesses, beholding the perfection of Christ, and finding good examples of strengths you want to develop.
Find the things that stir your affections for Christ and saturate your life in them. Find the things that rob you of that affection and walk away from them. That’s the Christian life as easy as I can explain it for you.
Love says: ‘I’ve seen the ugly parts of you, and I’m staying.’ Our culture doesn’t love love; it loves the idea of love. It wants the emotion without the sacrifice.
God is awesome; he doesn’t need you to be awesome. He wants you to be obedient.
The more you make this world about you, the more miserable you will be.
My sin in the past: forgiven. My current struggles: covered. My future failures: paid in full all by the marvelous, infinite, matchless grace found in the atoning work of the cross of Jesus Christ.
Comfort is the god of our generation, so suffering is seen as a problem to be solved, and not a providence from God.
Could it not be, that God loves me too deeply, by having people challenge me so that I know I’m not perfect.