“How grateful are you for those whom I place in your life as refiner’s fires? What gives you the right to turn your back on them, when they are a gift from Me? Do you really understand that every challenge that enters your life is really a gift to you as I see it? They are agents of refinement and change. I promised that I would war against your flesh and build your spirit. You are on your way to becoming like Jesus.

"Make note of this. Everything that you face is working for Me to bring you closer to My desire for you. If you would embrace the people, situations, and challenges that you encounter, instead of becoming angry or discouraged, you would find real peace as We walk together. Look around. Find those things that are making you grow. Begin to be thankful for them and see how your life changes.”

Lam. 3:27-28 AMP

27) It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke [of divine disciplinary dealings] in his youth.

28) Let him sit alone uncomplaining and keeping silent [in hope], because [God] has laid [the yoke] upon him [for his benefit].

2 Cor. 3:18 AMP

And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.

We don’t get it. God is in the business of doing everything necessary to destroy any trace of our old man, and we seem to be in the business of ignoring or never understanding the ways He is doing it. For some reason, it never seems to occur to us that almost every person, place, or thing that enters our lives is an opportunity to either show us how much we have grown, or how stagnant we really are, by the way we deal with it.  Our representation of Jesus is not defined by how spiritual we think or say we are. It is defined by how we act, especially to those who boil our potatoes.

You mean they were part of my blessing, Lord?

Jim Corbett