Tag: Trust

faithfully trusting when the assignment is hard

Should anyone’s life illustrate the maxim, “If God brought you to it, he’ll bring you through it” it’s Joseph. Very much against his will Joseph was “brought down to Egypt.” But it would not be the end of the story. Faithful Joseph, as you know, went from the pits to a palace and became the vice-ruler in Egypt!

I’ve been thinking about Joseph a lot these days. His brothers contemplated murdering him, and then they settled for the lesser crime of trafficking him into slavery. By the providence of God he finds himself in a rather favorable arrangement. That all blows up when his sex-starved employer’s wife falsely accuses him of attempted rape.

All this and Joseph is still only 17 years old.

His employer explodes and throws him in prison. Even still, Joseph conducts himself in such a way that impresses the warden and is given special privileges. If he thought his good conduct might gain him an early release, however, Joseph, now in his 20s, had another thing coming. Literally.

This is the life of young Joseph. Misunderstanding. Betrayal. Mistreatment. Injustice. One thing after another, and still more after that. Thirteen l o n g years.

All of it, every last bit of it, was intended to get Joseph next to the ruler of Egypt where he could be positioned to do greater good in the world. Talk about earning a promotion!

Could you handle that assignment?

After all he had to endure, Joseph grabbed hold of his God and clung to him for dear life. There are quite a few sterling moments to draw out of his testimony, but I want to highlight just this one:

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard about you, that you can interpret dreams.” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “It is not within my power, but God will speak concerning the welfare of Pharaoh.”

What startles me about this is that Joseph, in spite of everything, still believed God was all-powerful and he was motivated to do good. There doesn’t seem to be a shred of bitterness in him. Joseph still believed there was a divine plan at work and God was using his story of faith to bless others.

Fellow struggler, trust God down there in your Egypt. There is a way forward even though you wake up to the same thing day after day. You think this is it, this is all, just grit your teeth and bear it. I assure you there’s a plan in the mind of God and it is good.

One thing you don’t see Joseph doing — quite remarkably — is playing the victim. He shows us if we can thrive in and rise to the level of excellence in our adversity, by the grace of God, we will be overcomers. It may take 13 years (Joseph) or 20 years (Jacob) or 25 years (Abraham & Sarah) or 40 years (Moses), or however long, but you won’t find a better alternative than to

TRUST

GOD’S

PLAN.

I must hasten. In studying the travails of Joseph I want to leave you with two immutable truths:

1. it’s always right to do good even if you don’t see a reward for it

I get it; everything about this makes you want to scream. Where’s the justice? The equity? You wonder why you have to smile and take it. Do right though the stars fall, I once heard. Keep your hand to the plow, Jesus said. Don’t do right for right’s sake, Paul said, do right for Jesus’s sake.

To that end I read this aloud from my prayer book this morning:

I would serve in imitation of you, who poured out your life for me. I would serve knowing that your Spirit is ever at work in the lives of those I serve, ever calling, ever drawing, ever seeking to soften hearts encased in fear and disappointment and anger and idolatry. So let my kindnesses and sacrifice fall like warm shafts of sunlight on icy ground.

I cannot know the end of another person’s story… So let me be content to minister regardless of visible outcomes, trusting that the small mercies I extend will be woven into the larger theme of redemption at work in the lives of others, as you woo them to yourself…

Every Moment Holy, Vol. 1, p. 158

2. God’s favor will find you even in your darkest trial

Okay. If we’re being honest, none of us is going to be a ruler over a nation. We probably won’t get our story published; this post won’t go viral. But is that what it’s about anyway? Could we (hear me out) say amen to God even if we knew nothing would change?

I leave you with this. At the end of his grave injustices, Joseph got married and raised a family. I beg you to read about that here. The names of those two boys, Manasseh and Ephraim, tell quite a story. Your homework is to study their meanings. What I’ll say about it is this: Joseph married an Egyptian bride, but their sons bore Hebrew names.

That tells me Joseph wanted to remember his journey. None of it was a mistake. Not a single year was wasted. Even in Egypt, Joseph’s God was faithful, his trials were necessary, and the outcome was favorable. I have a feeling if Joseph never got out of that prison, never sat on a throne, never had a family, he’d still say

“It’s not me, it’s God.”

Joseph lived to be 110. He learned to love Egypt but his hope was in the home country. He wanted to go home. That’s all that matters in the end. When you’re finished with me in Egypt, Lord, take me home.

Hey, beloved of God, if he brought you to it he’ll bring you through it. He gave you the assignment; he must be pretty certain you will come through to the other side to tell your story. And what a story you’ll have.

Selah.

finally, a hallelujah

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out,


Hallelujah!

Revelation 19:1

“Hallelujah” appears twenty-four times in the Bible. Only four of those times is it found in the New Testament and Revelation 19 lays claim to those. Think of that for a moment. The first time the word “hallelujah“ shows up in the New Testament is at the very end.

One could imagine a hefty hallelujah following the huge buildup in the previous 256 chapters of gospel and epistle. Like the swelling of a musical piece to its finale, ‘hallelujah’ hits just the right note.

I spent a little time grousing to the Lord this morning about unanswered prayers. After finishing out my little pity party, I opened the Word and picked up where I left off yesterday. The first words I saw are what you just read in the quote-box above.

For the 247th time this year, I mentally threw my hands up and said, “Okay, God, I get it. You win.”

I’m sure you can’t relate to that at all.

Laura Story sang about such things in her single, “Blessings.”

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise?

—Laura Story, Blessings © Capitol Christian Music Group, Capitol CMG Publishing

If you’re out here struggling against unanswered prayers, hard labors, injustices, and dark nights of the soul, don’t lose hope. We’ll all sing “hallelujah” when all is said and done. Few are fortunate to get vindication in this life; most have to wait till it gets nearer to the end of the book.

Let’s say it again — louder — for the people in the back:

Once more they cried out,


Hallelujah!

Revelation 19:3

Amen. Boy do I feel that.

This “hallelujah” is for all whose theology is outpacing their doxology. For everyone who lived righteously and didn’t receive their reward in life but were rather hated and jeered and despised, this hallelujah belongs to you.

It’s for all the smoldering wicks and bruised reeds. The ones Paul Simon called “the sat upon, spat upon, ratted on.” It’s for the publican at the door of the temple who can’t possibly know he’s been justified until the book comes out.

For every parent who trained up their children in the way they should go but whose child departed from it anyway, this is your hallelujah.

For the followers of Christ who were promised they could “reign in this life” but were crushed by it instead, you get this hallelujah too.

Those who prayed and believed for healing in this life but you still had to carry it like a thorn in your side anyway, your hallelujah is coming.

For every survivor of rape and physical and sexual abuse who was told to keep quiet about it ‘for the good of the church,’ or, worse, not believed, this hallelujah belongs to you.

To the saintly ones who’ve been silenced, canceled, vilified, and shown the door by the mob, here’s your hallelujah.

When you opted rather to bless than retaliate, God sees you and invites you to own this hallelujah. All who were crushed by oppression but held to Jesus anyway can take your place in the choir. To the one who seemed to have the devil on your back all the way to heaven, this hallelujah’s especially for you.

Spoiler alert for those still not sure about how it ends:

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

🔸🔸🔸🔸

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

Revelation 21:4,5

The page is turning; we’re getting closer to the end of the book. 2023 fidgets around the corner. For those who have made Jesus their Life in spite of every human reason not to, perhaps this is this year we finally get our hallelujah.

Even so, Come, Lord Jesus.

I’ll close out with the video to Laura Story’s song I referenced earlier. Hallelujah is not found in the lyrics, but it expresses a hallelujah heart better than anything I could say.

So for now I’ll be waiting to sing that Most Holy Hallelujah with you in that off-in-the-distance-yet-to-be Day when all the dots finally connect and all those unanswered prayers make perfect sense,

Pasture

Laura Story, Blessings

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broken record

Scott’s sick. Again.

Scott’s in the hospital. Again.

We need to pray for Scott‘s health. Again.

In recent weeks yet another ambulance crew carried me from my home where once again I brushed up against the cold bosom of death.

Yesterday, glory hallelujah, my wife carried me from the hospital, still alive and well, God having shown himself — again — faithful to deliver me from yet another close call.

Charles Spurgeon said, “He who has been with us in six troubles, will not forsake us in the seventh.”

I’m imagining you through my screen and telling you with all sincerity that there has never been a trial or a problem or tribulation or hardship or difficulty that God has not come through for me and delivered me. It is true his deliverance does not always come at the exact moment or in the exact way I thought, but I have never been forsaken and he has always shown his redemptive purposes in setting me free.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;

2 Corinthians 4:7-8

Through it all, through everything, he’s shown himself faithful and there’s no end to how grateful and in awe of him I am.

This is my story.
And, yes, this is my song.
I’m praising my Savior all the day long.

For obvious reasons, the book of Job has been a regular read for me. I’ve often turn to its pages to remind myself that God is sovereign through all of my hard times.

When you come to Job 23:14, it reads,

“For he will complete what he appoints for me,

and many such things are in his mind.”

Which could be paraphrased to mean:

“He has many ways to refine us – and He’ll use them anytime, anyway He wants.”

Here’s my story in 6 words:

Broken.
Blessed.

Grieving.
Grateful.

Waiting.
Worshipping.

My suffering was good for me,

because through it I learned your statutes.

Psalm 119:71

David referred to himself as a “broken” man. As bad as that is, he still knew a secret: the word he chose (‘âḇaḏ’) is the same Hebrew word used when God put Adam in His Garden and told him to “tend” it. It’s the picture of breaking up the sod and clods of dirt, using a hoe or rake. Poured into those crevasses and furrows and holes is the fertilizer needed to grow fruit and grain from fertile soil.

David was saying, “He fills my broken places with His Life and I rejoice in my afflictions because I know my dying is my living!”

David recognizes he might be broken, but he’s not a LOST CAUSE. He’s not unfixable, not unredeemable. He has greater value when he submits to the Lord’s plough.

Everything you suffer, all you’ve lost, whatever breaking you’ve endured, is working in you a lush harvest that will bring life to others!

A few years ago, my Sandy had the opportunity to travel with a high school choir to Italy for competition. On one particular off-day they did some sightseeing and visited Venice and “The Bridge of Sighs.”

There’s a long history with this famous place in Venice but the thing that most sticks out is the bridge connects a prison with a palace. Back in the day, the prisoners were led across this bridge after their sentencing in the palace and they would have to look through the narrow windows of the bridge on their last look at freedom. They would “sigh” in sorrow as they were led away in chains to their cell where they would live out the rest of their days.

Your trials feel like a prison. You ask God, “Why am I still single?“ “Why am I depressed?” “Why can’t I ever seem to get a break?” “Why can’t I get past this?” You wonder if he has abandoned you. You question his goodness. Some days you feel as though you’re serving hard time. It’s very much a prison to you.

The Lord invites you to “sigh” and surrender and believe he is going to escort you from your cell and lead you into a palace of blessing.

In a way I am still on the prison side of the bridge but, like Paul and Silas, I am singing at midnight… so it feels like I am on the palace side!

Let’s go back to our scripture we considered first.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous…

That tells me trials are a necessary part of our discipleship. That message doesn’t always draw a crowd, but it’s undeniably true. There are so many manys on our journey with Christ. We’re all like broken records.

The Hebrew word “affliction” is often translated in the Old Testament as “evil.” It is also translated “bad.”
“Wicked.”“Mischief.”

Take heart, sisters and brothers; when bad befalls you it comes from an enemy that despises you. This means you are in the safe embrace of Someone who loves you.

Scott’s sick. Again.

We gotta pray for Scott. Again.

Scott’s got another wound.

Trouble for the Mitchells. Again.

James says life is “hole-punched” with trials. Paul said “it is through many hardships we come into the kingdom.” He told the Corinthians he “faces daily pressure” and “anxiety.” David said, “every night I flood my bed with tears; I drenched my couch with my weeping.”

You can’t walk with Christ and not feel the blows. Romans tells us we “died with him” but we also “suffer with with him.”

Paul Miller writes of his daughter Ashley who died at age 42 of stage-4 colon cancer. Before she died Ashley told her bible study group:

“I cannot talk about cancer without talking about Jesus. I cannot talk about my trials without Jesus. I equate it to eating a Reese‘s – Jesus is the chocolate and suffering is the peanut butter – they just go together.”

Paul E. Miller, The J-Curve, 310-11

But wait. The second line of our verse makes the first line worth it: “But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”

Peter said even if you’re “grieved by various trials” you can “rejoice” (“dance for joy”) in this: future glory (and oftentimes present) will be much sweeter to you than you can even imagine.

Soon and very soon, the record that’s been skipping and repeating and jumping and scratching will stop and all our agains will be wiped away and his eternal never again will be our forever anthem.

This is our story, this is our unbroken song. Amen.

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