Whenever I'm going through a bit of tough time, or things just don't seem to be working out the way I would have liked, I'm the first to say to God, 'Hang on, I thought you wanted to bless me, and give me good things, and that you had good plans for me? So what's all this rubbish stuff, why is this happening, surely this isn't in the plan, please make it stop.'

Last night I was reading back through some of my old journals from a few years ago (bear with me, this does all fit together!), and one of the things that stuck out was that God said to me a few times that I would go through a time of preparing, of refining, where he would be building my character.

I learn best through experience and in September 2003 I had written down that 'if I want God to teach me to trust him, to learn that he'll protect me, to really know it deep down in my heart, I must go through a time where I'm under attack, but I keep my eyes focused on Jesus and still come out the other end unscathed and having learnt what it means to truly trust God.'

Now, I can't really say that I've had the worst time of it since then, but emotionally there has been some tough stuff to deal with. And I'm not sure it's quite over. But even I can see that my faith is SO much stronger now than it was then, that a lot of the walls have come down and that God is doing amazing things in and around me.

It was good to be reminded that whilst it may hurt, it may be confusing, it may absolutely suck, God does know what he's doing when he allows us to go through the valleys, and the end result is so worth it.

Because in fact, the biggest struggles lead to the biggest blessings. So stick with him, he keeps his promises.