Everything Joyce said blessed me but some of it was life changing/revolutionary. She said "You do your growing during times of abasing and you enjoy your growth in the times of abounding." That was illuminating. At times I've felt like God why are You punishing me and why do You take away my pleasure when I'm finally in a good place. Well because it's time to grow some more. The journey is about becoming like Christ, and it's awesome I get to enjoy my growth during certain seasons. We always act like the abounding is our goal (who doesn't want to abound), but the abasing is part of the process too. I am blessed by how she broke it down to its cyclical nature. It gave me some much needed perspective.

When I'm in a season of abasing I must resist the thought that God lied to me; it's just time to stretch before I can enjoy some more abounding. Whenever a person moves into a season of abasing they find themselves missing the last place/time of abounding. Like the Israelites we look back and reminisce on how good we had it back then. Ooh what delicious leeks and spices we had in Egypt, but forgetting we were in slavery. The Israelites proved that people can even miss aspects of the most pitiful seasons. But even if we had a wonderful season of abounding we can't go back to it. We've got to keep moving forward into the current season of abasing - which leads to abounding. If we'll persevere then we'll be abounding on another level - going from glory to glory to glory. The journey is much easier and more fun when your goal isn't abounding, but being content as you become like Christ.