Intro: As Christians we must clearly understand that the happenings in our lives were tailored just for us. Your difficulties are not to make you bitter but to make you better. God created us with a plan in mind, and again the plan wasn't to make you depressed, or miserable, the plan is to make you better. The greatness of God allows us to be made better in our struggles. God will take your good, mix it with your bad and work it for your good. Bad with your good, good with your good, but most importantly His awesomeness is shown in that God will take your bad, mix it with more of your bad and still work it for your good. In understanding your struggle there are a few things that we as Christians must change & understand......
I. Change your perception of your situation...v.12
A. We must be more optimistic than pessimistic
1. Too many glass half empty Christians
B. You should count it Joy when struggles come...Satan tries you because he peeked into you future and saw what God had in store for you
1. Also Jesus was crucified because of His greatness and because He posed a threat to the naysayers
a. Therefore if the enemy is attacking you it's because they see greatness in you & you pose a threat to them
II. Change your vocabulary....v.13
A. Your words speak your situation
1. Negative words stem from your negative thoughts which in turn lead to negative circumstances
a. If you think it then you'll speak it, once you speak it you begin to live it
B. Start speaking blessings into your life
1. Rejoice through your struggles
III. Understand the struggle.....v.13
A. Your struggle is a process of burning and refining
1. God says, there are some things on you that are not of me and they must be burned off
a. These things that you refuse to let go, I'll make them let you go
B. We must praise Him through the burning because many times His revelation comes while the struggle is active in your life
1. In order to possess the revelation you must 1st get through the struggle
a. Once you obtain the revelation then comes jubilation
