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| Last February 26, The Blackaby's (Rev. Henry and Richard and Daniel) were in town for a day's service with us. A blessing to have a worship with them. I have almost all the books of the Blackaby's but listening God speak through them is another wonderful experience with God.
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Now may the God of peace— Who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus,The great Shepherd of the sheep,
And ratified an eternal covenant with his blood— May he equip you with all you need
For doing his will. May he produce in you,
Through the power of Jesus Christ,
Every good thing that is pleasing to him.
All glory to him forever and ever! Amen.
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". You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result ." (Genesis 50:20)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."
'God meant it for good to me means -
I can accept the past - No sin, no action, no choice on my 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.
I can embrace the present - There's no need to play the 'what if' game. The past is gone, and no energy I expend will ever change it. The future is in God's omnipotent hands, so am free to focus on the present. My job is to love God with all my 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 me in the present because that's where His grace will flow.
I can look expectantly toward the future - Even if I make mistakes today, God still controls my future. Walking in the Spirit, I can live life to the fullest, unafraid of making mistakes and unconcerned I may stumble into some terrible circumstance that takes me out of God's control. Even when things appear to be terrible, I can trust that God is working out some divine plan through me.
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 my past, my present, and my future. I give God the circumstances, disasters, hindrances, hurts, and sins from my past. I give God my current situation, my disasters, hindrances, hurts, and sins of today. Praise God that he can work anything in my future for godly good, that I can walk in confidence that there is nothing anyone can do to me, or anything I can do that will be beyond the reach of God's Grace and redemption.
· Look for God's hand - Walking by faith means I see God's hand even in the most difficult of circumstances. I 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 me; God can still transform a deliberate, mean-spirited situation into something for his good.
· What will I allow God to change? - There it is: some situation, or event, or person in my life who, as far as I can tell, "meant it for bad." How do I think God meant it for good? I simply ask God what He wants me to do with this situation (event or person). When He answers, I do it.
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Revelation 7:10
And they were shouting with a mighty shout,
“Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!”
People try many methods to remove the guilt of sin--good deeds, intellectual pursuits, and even casting blame on others. The crowd in heaven however, praises God, saying that salvation from sin's penalty can come only through Jesus Christ. Have you had the guilt of sin removed in the only way possible?
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Forgetting those things which are behind. Philippians 3:13
It is impossible to succeed in life without overcoming your past. If you need inspiration to overcome your life's obstacles, look no further than Christ. Society called His birth illegitimate. He was born into a hated minority who experienced brutal oppression every day. The recognised church branded Him a heretic. The state called Him an insurrectionist too dangerous to live. One of His closest friends betrayed Him to enrich himself. He was sentenced without a fair trial and died like a common criminal. And what was His response to His suffering, and ours? "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).We spend far too much time crying over spilt milk. Rather than giving attention to the most important assignment we have every morning - our choice of an attitude - we waste our time and energy on things that cannot be changed. You cannot change past failures. You cannot change the fact that one day your spouse cheated on you. The past is over. Look forward. Press on! God says, "The plans I have for you… are… good" (Jeremiah 29:11). That means the best is yet to be!
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