What is God Forming Inside of You?

We tend to measure a season of life by what it produces. If something changes, we call it progress. If nothing seems to change, we assume we're stuck. But God often measures progress differently. Some of His most important work in us happens before anything around us changes.

Romans 5:3–4 says, “We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope” (NIV).

Notice the progression. God isn't simply interested in getting us out of difficult seasons. He can use those seasons to form something in us that we could not have developed as easily somewhere else.

That changes the question we ask. Instead of only asking, “How long is this going to last?” we can begin asking, “What is God wanting to form in me while I'm here?” Perhaps He is deepening your patience. Perhaps He is exposing a fear you've been managing for years. Perhaps He is teaching you to release something you've always tried to control. Perhaps He is growing your compassion for people walking through something similar. The season may feel unproductive, but God may be doing some of His most important work beneath the surface.

There is a difference between simply surviving a difficult season and allowing God to shape us through it. We can become bitter, guarded, impatient, or cynical when life doesn't go as expected. Or we can ask God to use the circumstances to make us more like Christ.

James 1:2–4 tells us to consider trials an opportunity for growth because testing produces perseverance, and perseverance leads toward spiritual maturity. That doesn't mean we have to enjoy difficult circumstances. It means we don't have to waste them.

The goal isn't merely to get through the season and return to normal. The goal is to come through it with a deeper faith, a softer heart, a stronger dependence on Christ, and a clearer understanding of what really matters. Sometimes the greatest evidence that God has been working isn't that the circumstance changed. It's that you changed.

Week 1 of the Joseph series, “When God's Plan Is Opposed,” lays the foundation for the larger journey. As you watch the sermon, listen not only for what God was doing around Joseph, but also for what God was doing within Joseph. That perspective will help us recognize the difference between simply enduring a season and allowing God to use it to shape us.