Genesis 50:20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
This is one of the best pictures in the Word of God to illustrate His sovereignty. God is in control, even as He allows men to have free will. The brothers of Joseph were determined to kill him, then decided to leave him in a pit, then decided to sell him into slavery. Just coincidence? No way! God was using every twist and turn of Joseph's life to bring about the salvation of his family, and to preserve the covenant the God made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Did it look like God was in control? Hardly, but when Joseph was reunited with his father there was no doubt the God was never out of the picture. And that brings us to this remarkable statement of Joseph. How could Joseph forgive what had been done to Him? How could he ever have fellowship with his family again? Joseph willingly forgave them because instead of the betrayal, he saw the handiwork of God, and whenever we choose to focus on God instead of the wrongs done against us, forgiveness always follows. I challenge you to take a different perspective about the way you have been mistreated. Did they really mean to do it? Maybe. Were they really wanting to injure you? Could be. But what does God intend to do in light of it? There lies the sovereignty of our Lord. He's making a masterpiece called "you".
I think of what Brother Matthew said earlier this week about the death of his father, and his relaps into a old lifestyle but how God brought him through. Thats the real point....God brings us through when our trust is in HIM. Joseph learned that God was his source as a child. When his brothers came against him and planned evil God worked things for his good. His bosses wife and imprisonment and friends who forgot him did not change his relationship with his God and when he had a choice to become bitter he became better and forgave and God turned things for his good and restored to him things that were lost. What do you think God wants to turn in your life today? Rev. Diane
ReplyDeleteI am amazed at the power of God to keep someone. In my childhood I experienced the power of unforgivness and what comes out of a heart that doesn't have the power to forgive. As I began to read this scripture for the first time years just a few years ago, I thought it was just a story. I had not experienced God in that way and I was discouraged. I wanted to trust and believe but the power of bitterness and resentment was rooted deeper than I knew. Sometimes I think that I still have behavior patterns that results from it. But through the few years that God's power of forgiveness has enabled me, I have seen the salvation of the Lord produce fruit in my heart. I have experienced on many occasions a supernatural ability not to become bitter and angry about an offense but, like water roling off a ducks back, the offense was washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ! Wow! That was cool! There is nothing to great for our Lord!
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