“It is a happy way of soothing sorrow when we can feel “HE careth for me.” Christian! do not dishonor religion by always wearing a brow of care; come, cast your burden upon your Lord. You are staggering beneath a weight which your Father would not feel. What seems to you a crushing burden, would be to him but as the small dust of the balance.
O child of suffering, be thou patient; God has not passed thee over in His providence. He who is the feeder of sparrows, will also furnish you with what you need. Sit not down in despair, hope on, hope ever. Take up the arms of faith against the sea of trouble, and your opposition shall yet end your distresses. There is One who careth for you. His eye is fixed on you, His heart beats with pity for your woe, and His hand omnipotent shall yet bring you the needed help. The darkest cloud shall scatter itself in showers of mercy. The blackest gloom shall give place to the morning. He, if thou art one of His family, will bind up thy wounds, and heal thy broken heart. Doubt not His grace because of thy tribulation, but believe that He loveth thee as much in seasons of trouble as in times of happiness.
What a serene and quiet life might you lead if you would leave providing to the God of providence! With a little oil in the cruse, and a handful of meal in the barrel, Elijah outlived the famine, and you will do the same. If God cares for you, why need you care too? Can you trust Him for your soul, and not for your body? He has never refused to bear your burdens, He has never fainted under their weight. Come, then, soul! have done with fretful care, and leave all thy concerns in the hand of a gracious God.”

C. H. Spurgeon, Morning & Evening

What would you say to a person who came to you stating that he has lost his home, been betrayed by his family, sold into slavery, wrongfully accused, wrongfully imprisoned and assumed dead?
As a Christian who counsels those who have either had that done to them or did that themselves I am at times perplexed. To the one who has brought this upon himself I have all the answers. But to the one who has had it all happen to them by others, what exactly do you say?
The counseling model that I was trained under has me sitting with this guy trying to make some sense of all this, trying to help him adjust, trying to be a real comforting presence and praying that he be relieved of his suffering instead of just offering flippant answers.
But I think, if we reflect on Pastor Greg’s teaching of Joseph’s story, we can see a better way to talk to those who have experienced lost of home, been betrayed by family, sold into slavery, wrongfully accused, wrongfully imprisoned and assumed dead! And if these current economic times continue long, we will all talk to people who have experienced that a lot!

I have learned over the years that God has created me for time and eternity and that God is more interested in the formation of my character than in my creature comforts.
As we listen to Pastor and study Joseph’s story in Genesis 37 through 50 what we find is that God was transforming his life, using his experiences and placing him right where he will do the most good. His life experience, from being his dad’s favorite, to being the object of scorn of his brothers; and from being the head slave in Potiphar’s house to living in prison after being wrongfully accused by Potiphar’s wife all form and shape him for the times he is yet to live.

We never really get to see Joseph’s internal struggle, just the details of the journey. I imagine, however, that he has some real dark and dreary days and has had an occasional pity party as he processed his way through his advertises. In the end God uses all of his struggles to transform him into the man who would save his entire family and the world.
The climax of his journey of transformation is seen in Genesis 50:20 where Joseph tells his brothers (the ones who sold him into slavery because they were jealous) “Even though you meant to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.”

What exactly does God intend to use from our current misfortunes? What will God make of our struggles, failures, betrayals? What would happen if truly we surrendered our lives and lived in faith trusting our Lord Jesus to use us to make a difference in this world for His sake?
What would happen if we decided to treat life’s situations as, “Transformation training”?

**************

Excellent, Jim!!
THanks, Greg

We have been playing them over and over and we have been really been blessed.

“Eyes on you alone” is our favorite song as well. There is something about this song tugs deep in my heart. A heartfelt prayer to our Lord to lead us.

In many ways, it is a love song that stirs up a great deal of emotion.

***********

Thank YOU, Todd — I’m so happy you have been blessed! Thanks for listening and taking the time to let me know. Blessings, Greg

The recent trials in my life posed temptation to grow bitter rather than better. To allow weakness to take hold, rather than to allow God to make me stronger.
I thank God in my weakness He is my strength! HE gets ALL the glory!

With that said, I am so thankful for the counsel I received from you as my pastor. I was given so much gentle encouragement, scripture, hope, pointing me to Christ. Thank you for being instrumental in keeping my eyes and focus on Jesus. How big our God is. To take one day at a time! To not take on a victim’s mentality. These things are HUGE and made all the difference in the world in learning to press on through such a trial.

I want to keep moving forward, I want to allow God to have His way in my life. I want to never forget I have a choice in how I will respond to whatever circumstances come my way. I have learned much of this through your example, God working in and through your life.

Thank you!
Pressing on,
shelly

Thank you so much for posting this blog!! i love what you said..

“Joseph was a man who understood that HE STILL had a CHOICE to serve the Lord faithfully no matter what the circumstances! ”

it is all about choices and attitude, rising above the situiation with a GOOD ATTITUDE, moving forward and helping build the Lords Kingdom daily.

it was also nice to be reminded of this statement

“He became BETTER rather than BITTER, STRONGER rather than WEAKER. Joseph kept moving forward!”

that is what i want to do in my life..

so thank you dad for posting this encouraging blog..it has been a huge blessing!!

love you LOTS!

Sarah

Commit your ways to the lord– TRUST also in HIM. Psalms 37