Aaron,

No nose wrinkling or eye squinting here! [img]http://www.the-highway.com/w3timages/icons/grin.gif" alt="grin" title="grin[/img] All who are God's children are confronted with such thoughts and usually arrive at the same conclusion in God's good time.
In reply to:
[color:"blue"]So God puts us through these sturggles to purify us. We survive one of these trials and before we can breath a sigh of relief once again we go under again. God does this to prove to us that we can not do anything a apart from Him.

[img]http://www.the-highway.com/w3timages/icons/yep.gif" alt="yep" title="yep[/img] There is a two-fold purpose in our trials:

    [*]We are being, as you say purified. Or, as Paul wrote "that we might be holy and without blemish before Him." (Eph 1:4) And again, "For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son . . ." (Rom 8:29). But impetuous Peter, who probably was more experimentally knowledgeable of this great transformation wrote: "seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory and virtue; whereby he hath granted unto us his precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in that world by lust." (2 Peter 1:3-4). It's hard to imagine most of the time, at least it is for me, that "I" am being transformed into the image of Christ and will be presented holy before God at that great and awesome day.[*]This second great truth is that we, experientially, are being prepared for heaven where we shall ever be with the Lord. In our present state we are certainly unfit for the grandeur that awaits those who have this hope. We are yet sinners! simul iustus et peccator. The "old man" that yet has a glimmer of life within us is forever trying to make us rely upon ourselves; to exert that fictitious autonomy, which our father Adam fell victim to. The world's adage, "God helps those who help themselves", although having a ring of truth to it, is nothing less than the Devil's lie. For the Spirit of God is always working in and through us and even bringing forth unutterable prayers within our souls during those most perplexing and unbearable trials. Our Lord Christ is not only our justification but marvelously and mysteriously our sanctification (1Cor 1:30). As we are given this deep knowledge of God working in us we are humbled to the dust and cry out as did Mephibosheth, " What is thy
    servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?" (2 Sam 9:8) And with Peter, when we are given to behold the sovereignty of our God, we shamefully utter, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord." (Lk 5:8).[/LIST]Thus, dear brother, this all part of that "growing in grace" and being made fit and holy so that we may dwell with Him Who bought us with his own blood.
    Colossians 1:9-10 (ASV) For this cause we also, since the day we heard [it], do not cease to pray and make request for you, that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
    In His Marvelous Grace,

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simul iustus et peccator

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