Are you being stretched?

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace [Who imparts all blessing and favor], Who has called you to His [own] eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself complete and make you what you ought to be, establish and ground you securely, and strengthen, and settle you.” 1 Peter 5:10 AMP

Stretching means you will…

• Be uncomfortable
• Give up your rights (to be offended, to have your way…)
• Discipline your flesh
• Do now what you can live with tomorrow
• Turn your back on the ordinary

What’s cool about being stretched is that you will now be able to embrace things you wouldn’t have before…to imagine and believe for things you wouldn’t have had the capacity for before. So as PAINFUL as it is…stretching allows you to inhale more of God and His purposes for you.  Just like that good pair of jeans, that once broken in allow you to breathe and provide ease and range of motion!!  When our faith is stretched, our comfort zones pushed past their limit, then God can really make things happen.

The bottom line is, stretching expands us enough to receive more of God. Like Paul says, “less of me…more of you.”  So, I guess I’m willing to relinquish my comfort, my control, my selfish desires, my ideas of how the world should be (and of course, how it should treat me…) to allow God to take me and fill me and make me what He planned from the beginning. That’s the point of being stretched.

Has God been stretching you lately? Can you see a purpose in the stretching??