JOSEPH HAD IT BAD!
Often we assume godly Christians don’t struggle like others. We think they have risen above the trials and challenges of life. We think they have arrived at a higher level of spiritually. Not true. In fact, those God uses the greatest often have the hardest times in life. Daniel was taken from his family and put in captivity in Babylon. David was rejected by his brothers and forgotten by his father. Joseph was sold by his own brothers into slavery. (Genesis 37-50).
Nothing in Joseph’s family history could have predicted how God would use him. His father had children by four quarrelsome women. Joseph had 10 older stepbrothers. Jacob loved Joseph’s mother, Rachel, above the other wives. Joseph was favored causing embittered, jealous siblings that resulted in his slavery. Normally such trauma derails a person’s life completely, but Joseph rose above it and grew stronger.
After he was sold into slavery, then spent years in prison for something he didn’t do. The challenges matured him. He had a choice in how he responded to the circumstances in his life and he chose to rise above them to become the best person he could be. We can’t control much of what happens in life. We can only control our responses to them.
We today have choices to make as well. We have to choose if we are going to live for God or ourselves. We chose if we are going to allow the circumstances of life cause us to quit or continue moving forward. We can find reasons to quit, decide life isn’t fair, and envy those who seem to have easier lives than ours. Or, we can do our best to grow and be the person God created us to be. Joseph made that choice and so must we.
Living for Jesus and serving Him is a choice we make. God doesn’t force us to serve, He lets us decide if we want to rise above life’s troubles or fall under them. He puts the desire in us to serve and gifts us through His Holy Spirit, but it is up to us to choose to follow Him. If we choose to do the very best we can with the one life God has given us then we, like Joseph, will be making godly choices and commitments.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16
In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness Titus 2:7
Are you willing to follow and serve God with all your heart and life no matter the obstacles and difficulties you have had in the past and will have in the future? Will you choose to stay faithful whatever happens? Being a godly Christian is not easy, and without total commitment no one will faithfully serve to the end.
INDIA UPDATE & PRAYER REQUEST: The pastor in the pictures below is a son of a pastor and was named after Billy Graham. He recently married a nurse and they both work with children in the slums. They thank us for the training we make available. There’s no way of knowing the impact our books and conferences have had for the Kingdom in India. Thank God for choosing to use us for this important ministry and ask Him to continue to bless and use it.
cto Rev. Dr. JERRY SCHMOYER
Christian Training Organization ©2019
Jerry@ChristianTrainingOrganization.org
(India Outreach, Spiritual Warfare, Family Ministries, Counseling, World View)
Copyright © 2019