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Wednesday, September 06, 2006
WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN
Have you ever felt so low that you thought that life could not possibly get any worse - but then it DID? In Genesis 39, Joseph must have believed his life couldn't possibly get any worse.
God had given Joseph dreams that he would be great one day, a glimpse of a grand destiny - just as He gives us dreams of being great at football, or becoming a successful teacher or doctor, or of performing on stage or making a great invention. But when Joseph was sold as a slave, with no rights at all, these dreams of what his life would be like seemed to have been rudely interrupted - and he must have thought they were gone forever.
Then things got even worse for him! When Joseph did the right thing by fleeing temptation and refusing to sleep with his boss's wife, he got thrown into jail (Genesis 39) and his destiny seemed even further away than EVER! Why do things seem so unfair sometimes? When we obey God, one WOULD think it would be just good manners on His part if He rewarded us for our efforts, since it was already so hard to do the right thing! But it doesn't always happen that way. Sometimes by doing right we just seem to bring more trouble on ourselves.
But God wants to bless us and use us to bless others, and sometimes hardships are a necessary part of the journey. He has a plan for each of us that will result in the most good to ourselves and the people around us. He has designed it so that this plan will come into effect when we make choices that obey God each step of the way. Some of these choices will lead to sad situations, but they are still in God's plan and are just stepping stones to greater things.
Just think what would have happened if Joseph hadn't tried so hard to do the right thing. If he had given in to Potiphar's wife, he wouldn't have gone to prison. But then he would have missed the opportunity to be used by God to interpret Pharoah's dream (if you don't know the story, do read it up) - and he wouldn't have risen to Prime Minister and been able to save a whole country from famine! Obeying God led him to prison where he got his 'big break'. Though it must have seemed to him at the time that either he or God must have messed up somewhere, this was the correct path after all. And, as it happened, it was the path that really did make him great and by which he blessed a whole nation!
* * *
What I found most encouraging about this story was that Joseph didn't know at all what was going to happen. When he obeyed God and did what he knew was right, that automatically put him on the correct track, along God's plan for him. It's wonderfully liberating that we are not expected to be able to analyse our decisions and 'know how to' fulfil God's destiny for us. All we have to do is act as God would have us act, and He will take care to bring everything together.
Also, I saw that in life the choices we make should not be determined by whether it makes us happy or sad for the moment - but rather by whether they are right or wrong. This freed me from thinking that 'if my life seems messed up, maybe it's because I did something wrong and God is punishing me' - or from taking the sadness personally and wondering why God is 'out to get me'. It could be that I'm on the right track and God has planned this sadness for me in order to bring me to the next stage of His plan! As Hsia Pin said, "Sometimes it seems like we're going backwards - but God is just going to use it to bring us forwards again."
Like in the Coldplay song, 'You'll go backwards, but then You'll go forwards again You'll go backwards, but then You'll go forwards'
So, it is true God's methods may seem a bit 'twisted' to us sometimes when the big picture hasn't been revealed to us yet, but we can be comforted that He is always very much in control of the whole situation and that He has an order and a purpose for everything that happens to us, even the sad things - the setbacks, the misunderstandings and disappointments. At the end of Genesis, Joseph tells his brothers, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." (Genesis 50:20) Our destiny in God is a much bigger thing than forfeiting it for our personal happiness or comfort at one point in time.
This reinforces what God has been speaking to me in my own quiet time with Him - that when hardships and troubles come, we don't have to view them as a personal attack - "Why is this happening to me? Can't you see how hard it is for me, God? Why are you letting this happen and rewarding my obedience with sad stuff?" but we can see them as another step in the working out of God's destiny in our lives and trust that in time all will become clear. And we don't have to fear that the pain we go through due to our obedience to Him goes unnoticed or 'wasted', because every drop of it has been counted by God and is being used in His plans for our happiness!
- Joanna
the alleged @ 7:08 PM
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Leader's note
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