Using circumstances around us to learn about God

I really want to blog this time about what God has been teaching me lately. He has been teaching me about using the circumstances aroud us to propel us forward in our relationship with Him. The question that I have been asking is what does it take to live a life of excellence and not settling for a life of mediocrity. The first thing that I seen is that we need to be willing to have a change of heart before God will do anything with our lives. One thing that I am learning is that God is a gentlemen. In this day in age that we live in, commonly called the age of grace, God will not force himself on anyone. I have been asking somethings about our lives and why they are there. The answers that I have been getting are not what I was expecting. Instead of an easy answer, like I was expecting, God began showing me some negative things and how to turn them around for the positive. This is a concept that is not new, and I guess you could say that I am a slow learner. They are similar to ancient martial arts concepts. Using the force of your enemy against them. These things teach patience and perseverence, which is the only thing that will carry us through in these trying time that we live. I know that there are alot of people out there that are very worried about the financial market and what is going on with the politics in our country. These things I also spend a lot of time thinking about as well, but God has been showing me that it is not up to me to worry about it. Showing me that His will is being done in the world no matter what. Then I was given somethings that we might be able to use in our daily live. It is not much more than a paridime view. For example, we can us a time of trial, also as a time to learn perseverance.Also problems create perseverance, and in a time of what we feel as if we are defeated to learn about how to handle victories. We need to check our intentions and then we will learn consistancy, and also a time of cronic testing to learn to live in a state of constant fighting. This will produce a life of excellence and not a life of mediocracy. This is all fine and good and then I realized that in order to achieve that place, we need to go through those times of testing first. This is best seen in the world around us at the wellness centers. What does it take to make muscle??? This is the same with "spiritual muscle". I am learning to be quiet and still before God, and wait on Him for whatever comes my way.
I need to go now and get to bed and rest. I am so tired after the last few days of hosting parties, and a missions trip and other things. We have posted some new photos on our flickr account so you can see some of what we have been doing lately. Thank you for all of your support and for prayer. We have had some attacks lately from the enamy because he is scared. This means that we are making ground and pushing the kingdom forawd. We do need prayer for continued protection and provion while we push back the darkness and reveal the light.