More Like Me

I've been wanting to write this post for a while now, but I have been completely unsure how or where to start to explain what it's all about. There's been a deep "knowing" in me for weeks that things are not as they should be, that I am not as I should be. I've had some rough and tumble shakeups in the last few months, and while I've done my best to keep an Isaiah 26:3 attitude, perfect peace through a heart/mind fixed on the Lord, I confess that many of my friends would tell you, I've been less than peaceful most days. Why is that? How do we accomplish that peace? A friend quoted for me last week, "Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness." I liked it instantly. Lord, what is it you are willing to do in my life? What do you want me to ask you for? Yesterday, I got very discouraged, and I wrote to a precious friend about it. She responded today with a prayer for me, not that God would grant me the things that I want, but that He would give me the things that I need - the things that make me look more like Jesus. Becoming like Christ, being refined through pain and trial is becoming more like me, the me that He has designed me to be. If you're thoroughly confused, I do apologize. This is just my attempt at processing some of the things I've been thinking about recently. I want to look more like Jesus daily, and I am thankful for friends who are His faithful servants, speaking truth to me in love about how my circumstances can be used to accomplish that when I take my eyes off of me and place them back on Him.
So, how do you respond to this post? This is what I've been doing today. Recount His faithfulness. Tell me one or many of the ways that God has proven himself "gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy, good to all." Let's rehearse His goodness together and look for the ways He is accomplishing His good will in our lives. I can't wait to hear what you have to say!