"This suffering is making me more like Christ and deeper in faith"
How it sounds in your head: Real spiritual maturity comes through the furnace. Your pain is producing perseverance and character. This is the path to Christlikeness that others who haven't suffered can't access.
"I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church."
-- Colossians 1:24Religious glorification of suffering that confuses the sufferings of Christ with accepting disease as spiritual formation.
You have experienced some genuine spiritual growth during this trial, and you've read enough Christian books about suffering producing character that it seems biblically sound and spiritually mature to embrace it.
Sick to the point of death, told by the prophet to get his house in order. He wept and prayed, and before the prophet left the courtyard, God sent him BACK with a message: 'I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you.' Healed IMMEDIATELY, given fifteen more years.
I REFUSE the lie that disease makes me like Christ. IT IS WRITTEN that the sufferings of Christ were FOR THE GOSPEL, not disease. Jesus was never sick—He HEALED the sick. Becoming like Him means walking in resurrection power, not accepting the curse. IT IS WRITTEN that by His stripes I was healed. I am the righteousness of God in Christ, not through suffering but through His finished work. The BARAK blessing is mine by covenant, bringing health and life. I reject sickness as spiritual formation and receive healing as my covenant birthright. Christlikeness is destroying the devil's works, not embracing them.
Your Father isn't developing you through disease—He's already made you complete in Christ. The growth you've experienced came from HIS presence in the trial, not from the trial itself. He's eager to heal you instantly and continue your growth in health, not sickness.