Welcome to our final HEART NOTES post for March. I hope you have enjoyed these posts on faith, and found the March printable to be helpful in meditating on and memorizing our March verses. In case you did not get the March printable, here it is. You may click on it in order to download and print it.
Have you ever been in such a bad place in life that you were certain there was no way any good could ever come of it?
The mortgage is past due….again.
The physician just used the ‘C’ word as she looked into your eyes.
Your husband (or wife) told you they are in love with someone else, packed their bags, and left.
The teenage daughter, who never gave you any trouble, is now pregnant.
The blue lights flashing on the car you are now riding in, and the handcuffs on your wrists, mean that you are in major trouble.
How could anything good emerge out of circumstances that are bleaker than a gray day in the middle of winter, and more painful than anyone should have to endure?
May I introduce you to my friend, Joseph.
Joseph knows a bit about tough times and dead end circumstances. He was the favored child of a father of 12 boys. He had some pretty spectacular dreams in which his family bowed at his feet. He was foolish enough to tell his family about said dreams. His jealous brothers sold him to a passing caravan, and he was enslaved in a far-away land. He gained some notoriety as the trusted servant of a high official. His good looks, however, caught the eye of the high official’s wife, who tried to coerce him into her bed. When he refused, Mrs. High Official told lies about him, and he was thrown into prison, where he languished for years. Eventually, he was released from prison after interpreting a dream that Pharaoh dreamed. Because God was with him, Joseph rose to the rank of Prime Minister of Egypt, and was put in charge of food procurement in advance of a horrific famine.
One day, a band of brothers from far away bowed before him, begging for food for their family. They were HIS brothers. (Hmmmm, remember that boyhood dream Joseph had?) When he revealed to them who he was, they were frightened for their lives and feared retribution from Joseph. In light of all that Joseph had suffered at the hands of his brothers, his words to them in that moment slays me every time I read it.
You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people. Genesis 50:20 (HCSB)
Whaaat?? Had he lost his mind? He had been sold into slavery, separated from his family for decades, falsely accused, imprisoned for years for a crime he didn’t commit. God planned it for good?
Joseph saw the big picture. Sure, he had endured some pretty awful things, but he had his eyes fixed far above the horizon of his circumstances. He was focused on God. God had not been surprised by what happened to Joseph. In fact, God had a plan for it. He was going to use Joseph decades later to keep an entire nation…or two…from starving to death.
Your circumstances? Someone may have planned evil against you, or maybe you got yourself in a pickle. Either way, God planned it for good to bring about a desired result. So, you have a choice. Focus on the horizon of your circumstances, or lift your eyes vertically above that horizon, and fix them on God. Trust Him in trials. He’s got your back, your present, and your future.
