A partial set of notes and Scriptures:

 

Life is often like a roller-coaster.
A Scripture that often troubles me when I am going through a difficult trial.
Jas 1:2  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Jas 1:3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Jas 1:4  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
FORMULA for PERFECTION must INVOLVE PATIENCE!!!!

God wants us to be like eagles, able to soar with different winds... and not be like a bunch of Turkeys... fairly earth bound.

HOW does an Eagle learn how to fly...
Mother eagle cares for the eaglets... then teaches them to FLY.

Exo 19:4  Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.
Far more clear when one understands how an Eagle trains and cares for its young.

Exo 19:5  Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
Exo 19:6  And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

Character can't be built overnight... God is reproducing Himself, and building His character takes time AND PATIENCE> There is no way around it.

Gen 6:11  The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Gen 6:12  And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
Gen 6:13  And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Gen 6:14  Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.

God did not tell him it would be over 100 years in th project and teaching, speaking ... all this TIME, God was PERFECTING NOAH!!!

Gen 12:1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
24 years later at the age of 99... "walk before me and be perfect"...  promise of a son, a year later.

Gen 22:11  And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
Gen 22:12  And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. {{ 42 years passsed.... !!! }}

GOD deals with those who are Called, Chosen and Faithful.

Patience is what is necessary in this roller coaster of life we experience.

Joseph is another example. A very special young man from very young age.
Gen 37:2  These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.
Gen 37:5  And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
Gen 37:6  And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
Gen 37:7  For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
Gen 37:8  And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.

At 17,  GOD revealed his future to him. He would have nothing but trials to get to that promised future.

Gen 41:46  And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.
Gen 41:47  And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls.
13 years had passed... GOD was not in a hurry... The task required time.

Died at 110... 80 years of service to EGYPT.... at least 93 years OBEYING God in his life in very adverse circumstances.
Gen 47:7  And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
Gen 47:8  And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou?
Gen 47:9  And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

Trials, troubles, calamities, challenges, pains and miseries...  throughout life... the PATH to Godly Character is neither straight, not simple, nor painless...

Why did Israel wander for 40 years... NOT because God did not ask for directions or because His GPS was broken...

To try you and see what is in Your Heart!!!  Goal is to build a Certain Character.

Peter... 1000 years as a day and a day as a 1000 years.  Have you ever done the math ??
Rev 6:9  And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
Rev 6:10  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

ARE WE THERE YET?

Rev 6:11  And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

TRIALS, even death are MEANS FOR COMPLETION so we lack NOTHING in our lives and character.

Gentleman with cancer; What do you want? "TO DIE with dignity and peace".

Often to live is far more difficult than to die.

Jas 1:4  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting (lacking) nothing.
Jas 1:5  If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
Jas 1:6  But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
Barnes: Nothing wavering - (μηδὲν διακρινόμενος  mēden diakrinomenos.) “Doubting or hesitating as to nothing, or in no respect.” See Act_20:20; Act_11:12. In regard to the matter under consideration, there is to be no hesitancy, no doubting, no vacillation of the mind. We are to come to God with the utmost confidence and assurance.

We are like a cake that the baker is baking. NOT completed till it is taken out and the icing applied. Only then is it complete.

Php 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Jas 1:12  Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

Wings of an eagle deliverance will be repeated in the future.

The woman has MADE herself READY...

Rev 12:14  And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
Rev 12:15  And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
Rev 12:16  And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
Rev 12:17  And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
HOPEFULLY, the Church has matured and ready to fly instead of tumbling like the eaglets.

Patience IS EVERYTHING!
One quality we absolutely need, a key ingredient, is Patience with our GOD.
He like that mother eagle. It may appear that HE has dropped us. But just like that mother eagle comes down and catches the eaglet, so GOD is ever attentive and ready to DO the right Thing for us.

LET us make sure we are patient enough to keep at it till we are ready to fly and the "icing is on the cake" and we are complete, lacking NOTHING.