Day 5 - Lacking Nothing, Spiritually Complete

The goal of patient endurance through trials is not material comfort or the absence of hardship. It is spiritual completeness, a life that is not impoverished in any spiritual quality God desires to develop in us. Paul understood this. He had learned contentment not by avoiding difficulty but by walking through it repeatedly with God. The phrase "I have learned" in Philippians 4 tells us this was not automatic. It was a process. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. That sound mind, that mental and moral fortitude, is available to every believer who chooses to let patience complete its work rather than cutting the process short.

Is there an area of your spiritual life where you feel genuinely impoverished or underdeveloped? What might you be refusing to submit to that is keeping you there?