Editor’s note – Although I know we offered this devotional recently, it teaches the absolute necessity for applying our faith to the past, to the present, and to the future. How will you allow the living water from Christ’s fountain to flow this year into the deepest crevices of your memories, fears, anxieties, and hopes? – jw
The life of Joseph was anything but peaceful. It was filled with youthful folly, broken dreams, and the mean-spirited actions of others. Yet he remained a man remarkable for his lack of bitterness or regret, always seeing God as the “Great Engineer” behind even the worst of circumstances.
In a final confrontation with his brothers, he graciously noted, “You meant it for bad; God meant it for good.”
The theology packed in that statement is astounding. ‘God meant it for good means –
You can accept the past – No sin, no action, no choice on your part is too big for God to handle – or too big to be worked for the good of those who love him and are called according to his name. Just ask Joseph. Better yet, ask his fearful and famished brothers, who were forced to rely on him for survival.
You can embrace the present – There’s no need to play the ‘what if’ game. The past is gone, and no energy you expend will ever change it. The future is in God's omnipotent hands, so you’re free to focus on the present. Your job is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, trusting him to forgive the past and transform the future. Martyred missionary Jim Eliot once wrote, “Wherever you are, be all there,” not living in the past and not fantasizing about the future. God wants you in the present because that’s where his grace will flow.
You can look expectantly toward the future – Even if you make mistakes today, God still controls your future. Walking in the Spirit, you can live life to the fullest, unafraid of making mistakes and unconcerned you may stumble into some terrible circumstance that takes you out of God's control. Even when things appear to be terrible, you can trust that God is working out some divine plan through you.
What does this mean?
· No matter how bad things get – God is still able to bring good out of it. Today, thank God that nothing – no disaster, no delay – is bigger that his ability to turn it into something good and godly.
· Thank God and let go – Thank God that he is sovereign over your past, your present, and your future. Give God the circumstances, disasters, hindrances, hurts, and sins from your past. Give God your current situation, your disasters, hindrances, hurts, and sins of today. Praise God that he can work anything in your future for godly good, that you can walk in confidence that there is nothing anyone can do to you, or anything you can do that will be beyond the reach of God’s Grace and redemption.
· Look for God’s hand – Walking by faith means you see God’s hand even in the most difficult of circumstances. You trust in his ability and his willingness to transform the bad into godly good. God is not limited by people’s motives. In other words, it does not matter why someone hurt you; God can still transform a deliberate, mean-spirited situation into something for his good.
· What will you allow God to change? – There it is: some situation, or event, or person in your life who, as far as you can tell, “meant it for bad.” How do you think God meant it for good? Ask God what he wants you to do with this situation (event or person). When he answers, do it.
Just to let you know that I’m still praying for you and John: for the blessing of your marriage, and the strengthening of your love for one another and for Christ. I’m still praying for your mother and your son in the war too.
)