Slowly Perfected by the Lord

Have you ever baked a scrumptious cake or another yummy dessert?  Have you ever made a delicious dish that was so awesome, you couldn't help but give yourself props?  What is it that makes the perfect dish?  The answer is time. My mom always told me to cook on low heat and to let the food cook slowly. The longer you let something cook, the better it turns out. The flavors have time to slowly merge and richly compliment the dish. I have to admit that sometimes, I'm in such a hurry that I pull the dish out too soon. To my dismay, it's often not ready, and back in the oven or stove it goes.  Our Christian walk is similar to this.  God is slowly perfecting us to be that mature Christian and powerful men and women of God He has called us to be.
James 1:2-4 tells us,

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations [testings]; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."

God's testing in our life is meant to bring us to perfection or spiritual growth.  When we are tested, God is producing patience in our lives. It is that patience that brings us to spiritual maturity and to the place God is taking us to.  If we try to interrupt what God is doing or take matters into our own hands, we are cutting our process short and not letting the flavor of God truly develop within us.  If I may say,we are taking the "dish" out too early.  Therefore, we won't be fully perfected and entire.  When we allow God to fully make us into what He wants, we end up truly winning because the finished product is fully done and nothing more needs to be added to it.  We become what God truly intended us to be.  We will lack nothing spiritually because God has truly finished what He has started. T.D. Jakes wrote the following words. Keep in mind, although it was written for a woman, it applies to men and women alike:

Every woman who walks with God walk through storms winds and rain. O woman of God, your life is filled with challenges and victories, smiles and tears. You are like a sweet salve mixed by an apothecary. You are a careful blend of life’s many spices. Your personality is a potpourri of so many different things that years of knowing you will not reveal everything that makes you who you are. You are carefully concocted, slowly simmered, and stirred patiently by the Lord. It is amazing how deliberate God is in preparing you for you destiny. He knows what event it will take to bring you to a place of maturity in Him. He is your Lord.

Let us allow God to take His time in forming and molding us.  The final product will be amazing.