I am in the Place of God!

By Pastor Jeff,

Joseph had many ups and downs in his journey with Lord, some of his ups include receiving the coat of many colors from his father, becoming the head man at Potiphar’s house, and becoming second in command to all of Egypt in the Pharaoh’s kingdom! Some of his downs would be his brothers attempt to kill him, then selling him to the Ishmaelites, being accused of sexual assault by Potiphar’s wife then ending up in prison, and then being stuck in prison for two years. The one thing is that he never waivered for his love of God and rising above the fray.

When Jacob finally died, his brothers become fearful, Genesis 50:15-20, “And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” What a profound statement of faith and love!

We are all well aware that Satan hates us and seeks our destruction by whatever means he can. When sickness, death, suffering are piled on us as result of sin coming into our world we sometimes want to strike out and blame God. But we know He is not the source of evil and if we can real trust in the love of Jesus Christ we will see Romans 8:28 fulfilled, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” 

I will share for a moment on how I see this being fulfilled in my life. In the last year I have experienced a little more suffering than I would like to, my good friend died last October 20th, then a week later on October 28th my oldest son died as well. In the time between then and now my youngest daughter was diagnosed again with cancer and even though I believe she will be ultimately be healed it was a tough pill to swallow. Though I had experienced an occasional meltdown my faith in Jesus Christ is stronger than ever. This then leads to how God is turning it into a good thing!

A couple months ago our church as well I’m sure many churches received a letter talking about the local Sheriffs Dept. desire to start a Chaplain program for it’s officers. As I sat in the training class recently where the discussion was more about death and death notifications I thought to myself, “Why am I here?” The Spirit of God living in me brought me to the scripture from Romans 8:28 and I realized that those things that happened to me were meant to destroy me. But I would never of pursued this new chapter without it! God changed what was meant for evil to something good to His glory!

If you are going through a tough period, keep on loving God, trust Him and somehow, sometime, Jesus will turn it into something good!

picture care of: BibleWordings.com