“As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 (TLB)

There’s nothing in your life that you can’t learn from if you’ll just respond with the right attitude.

Instead of saying, “God, why is this happening to me?’ you need to learn to say, “God, what do you want me to learn from this?” Every situation in life will either make you bitter or better. It’s your choice—because you can choose how you respond to it.

Every problem has a purpose, and the purpose is to help you grow up spiritually and become more like Jesus Christ.

Philippians 2:5 says, “In your lives you must think and act like Christ Jesus” (ICB). If one of God’s purposes for your life is to grow up spiritually and to become like Jesus, then what is Jesus like?

The Bible calls Jesus’ character the fruit of the Spirit, which is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23 GW). These are the qualities God wants to build in your life. He wants your life to be overflowing with love, joy, peace, and all of these things.

God often produces these qualities in your life by putting you in the exact opposite situation.

He teaches you how to love by putting you around unlovely people. It’s easy to love people who are cool, people who are like you, people you get along with. But God will put you around seemingly unlovable people to show you what his unconditional love looks like.

He’ll teach you joy not by giving you everything you want but by showing you in adversity and grief that he is still enough.

He doesn’t teach you peace when you’re out fishing by the lake or wherever you choose to rest and relax. God teaches you real peace in the middle of chaos, when everything in your life is falling apart and you learn to trust him more.

God teaches us patience in traffic jams and waiting rooms and the thousand different ways we have to wait in life.

Becoming like Christ is a lifelong journey. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 3:18 in The Living Bible paraphrase, “As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him.” God’s Spirit will be working on you the rest of your life to help you grow up spiritually.

When he uses ways to help you grow up that seem uncomfortable or inconvenient, remember that they are producing in you God’s best fruit.