Difficult circumstances surround us - divorce, financial struggles, unemployment, death of loved ones, relationship problems, debt, and others.
The list can be limitless.
Your response to difficult circumstances in your life is an indication of your spiritual growth.
It is also a reflection of how you have spiritually transformed to become more like Jesus Christ.
Even though this is what I have learned in my life, it has taken me a lifetime to learn it.
Personally, I never welcomed, desired, or prayed for difficult times, but they come anyway.
Initially, I would tell my problems to others and ask for prayer.
Then I'd read the Bible and pray.
Although I endured the circumstances, I never had peace or joy.
As long as the difficult circumstances ended, that's all I cared about.
Relief was my goal, not peace or joy.
But God desires my best, so He sent other difficulties--ones that I did not have the power to change and could not control.
Although I searched and searched for a solution, none was found.
In God's timing, my difficulties ended.
Still I didn't have peace or joy during them.
To my shame, it was not until God touched my body that He slowly began to get my attention.
My first response was why me? Then resentment because I did not think I deserved what I experienced.
I saw myself as a "good" person who read the Bible, attended church, did good things for others, prayed, and obeyed as many of the Scriptures as I could.
When I wasn't "good," I still didn't think I was as bad as some of the other people I knew.
Yet others seemed to enjoy the life I thought I should have.
True, I had grown spiritually but I wasn't receiving what I thought were the benefits of spiritual growth--favor with God and others, financial and material blessings, unity with others who said they knew Christ, etc.
All I seemed to encounter were difficult circumstances with temporary relief.
I definitely had no joy or peace.
Then I began to understand the difference between spiritual growth and spiritual transformation.
Spiritual growth occurs when I read and study the Bible so that I can learn about God and His will for my life.
Spiritual transformation is the application of Biblical principles to my life or obeying what I learned in the Bible.
Now I realize that God gives me the ability to walk away from everything that tempts or entices me to remain in my natural state.
Before I thought it was my power and ability to stand against temptation.
I guess that's one of the reasons I failed.
Since spiritual transformation is to get me to live supernaturally - trading my natural eyesight for supernatural eyesight and walking by faith in God - I am beginning to appreciate and enjoy difficult circumstances in my life.
Previously I looked for spiritual growth to produce in me what only spiritual transformation can because reading the Bible is much easier than obeying it.
I am choosing to obey God's Word so peace and joy are no longer foreign to me during difficult times.
My desire is to become more like Christ regardless of what is going on in my life.
Instead of seeing difficult circumstances as fertile soil for anger, bitterness, or resentment in my life, I've changed my attitude.
I want my life to be fertile soil for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control regardless of the circumstances I encounter.
As long as I continue to grow spiritually and apply what I am learning in my life, I am sure God will continue to bring about spiritual transformation in my life.
I don't have to pray for transformation, it comes when I obey God's Word.
Becoming God's Vessel of Honor explains spiritual growth and transformation in more detail.