You may be in pain for two reasons, because you´re doing the right thing, or because you´re doing to wrong thing. If you´re going to go through pain, let it be because you´re doing the right thing.
My previous messages have been about how to handle memories. Keeping away those memories that are useless, and bringing in meaningful moments, those moments that will nurture us, that will empower us to better develop, those moments that will remind you of the purpose God has for your life. Put your past behind you, but don´t put behind the benefits you obtained from it. God heals you, rescues you, lifts you up, and crowns you. God will open doors for you, don’t forget His benefits. Even though Joseph was an extremely successful man, he named his firstborn Manasseh because God had made him forget, Genesis 41:52 and he named his second son Ephraim because God had made him fruitful in the land of suffering.
Joseph said “God has made me fruitful”. God will make you fruitful, it’s up to you how, but He will live up to His word. Even when Joseph was his father´s favorite, he still hadn’t been fruitful enough for the purpose God had for him. If God has given you a dream you have to understand that you will face many tests to build the character God needs to fulfill His purpose in you. Every dream needs a person to make it come true, and every person needs character to make that dream come true as well. God will shape you so you don’t abort that dream but so you persevere until you see it through. God wants to see your dreams becoming a reality, but He also wants to shape you just the way He did with Joseph. Normally, dreams come before character. We had dreams even when we were kids, but we didn’t have the character. Even now, as adults it seems sometimes we lack character; that’s why we need to be molded and shaped. God wants us to bear fruit.
There is a land of suffering and sorrow for everyone, and suffering is personal and non transferable. Joseph said: “God has made me fruitful in the land of suffering”. Suffering may come in different ways for everyone, but it happens all the same, it doesn’t happen to you alone. If you learn how to take advantage of your suffering, you will bear fruit, you, not someone else; but you have to learn how to deal with your problems. Thinking that it’s only you the one going through suffering is wrong, maybe it doesn’t come in the same shape and size. Some may suffer because of family matters, others may suffer because of their work, but we all have our land of suffering. Joseph admitted it and so he named his son Ephraim, so he could always remember that even through his own sorrow, God had been there and had prospered him. He was willing to remember the rewards and not the suffering.
Is there a woman who likes to remember the pain of labor? Mothers usually forget once they’re holding their newborn in their arms. When they see the fruit they were bearing they’re even willing to go through all that again. We should then forget about the suffering and see the character it built in us. Forget the hardship, remember the promotion.
Matthew 13:20-21: The one that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy; but since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. Don’t try to find suffering, it will come your way anyway. Joseph didn’t mean to get in trouble and didn’t mean to go after suffering, the only wrong he did was having a dream from God and that was enough to put him in pain. If you’re going to go through suffering, let it be because you’re doing the right thing, because you’re being successful, because you’re a go-getter, but not because of adultery, fornication, lies. It’s worth it going through suffering if it’ll make you grow, if it’ll make you better, if you’re doing something God wants you to do.
Joseph had a dream, he wanted to see it through so he told his brothers about it. We all know what they did to him. Joseph didn’t go to jail because of stealing or sleeping with someone else’s wife. Many of us do what is right and suffering comes along, you may be righteous but still you’ll go through your share of suffering, but if it comes from doing what is right, then kneel down, raise your hands, and worship the Lord saying “God I know that you will bless me even through this hardship, bless my enemies, bless those who mean to ruin me, change them.” Bear fruit anyway.
Raw gold is good for nothing, gold people are after is the one that has been perfected through flames of fire. Suffering shapes us into beautiful jewels that God is willing to wear and show off. You’re going through the flames because God wants to take pride in you. What Joseph did in Egypt was remarkable; God used him to fight famine and deliver Egyptians and then Israelis. You have to learn how to handle suffering, how to deal with your own self, how to build character. Are you content through your own suffering? Do you smile to your children? You have to. I know you have your share of problems out there, at work, with money, but as you get home, put a smile upon your face, don’t go around telling everybody how miserable you feel, you have to be in good spirits. You, husbands, you’re leaders, smile, give hugs, kiss your family, joke around, and so your wife and your children will say “we really look up to this man, even when he’s going through trouble, there’s always a smile on his face”. We have to be like Joseph, he didn´t despair; he bore fruit because he kept his eyes on the Lord. Matthew 13 said that many don´t bear fruit because of trouble and persecution. Trouble is, thus, s enemy to being fruitful.
Genesis 39:2 The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.
There is no perfect environment for success. Some people change jobs because of the working environment. Do you know why you want to change jobs? Because you’re not doing anything to change that environment. You are just hanging in there. Joseph prospered in an environment of slavery, he didn´t care where he was, he didn´t care who he was with, he didn’t think I´m a slave, he thought I´m the son of the Almighty, I am truly blessed, everything I do prospers, everything I set my heart to succeeds, it doesn´t matter where I go, God is always with me. God prospered him in the house of his master. You don´t need to own a business to prosper.
Genesis 39:3 His master saw that the Lord was with Joseph and he prospered. Joseph prospered in the middle of his circumstances. The reason why you don’t prosper is because you complain so much about the circumstances, that you actually convince yourself that God can´t bless you in those particular circumstances. You’re actually conditioning God to bless you only in the circumstances that you think appropriate, but I have good news for you, if you really believe that God is with you in that very situation you´re in, he will spare you and lift you up. The Lord works in a mysterious combination, on one hand Joseph was extremely weary, but on the other hand he had so much faith in God, that he never complained for his situation, even in Genesis 41, when he named his son, he recalled having been spared in that darkest hour. Joseph wasn’t thinking about his suffering, he was thinking about bearing fruit, and if he hadn’t borne fruit, he would have never become the ruler of Egypt. Joseph was weary but blessed, he was in trouble, but had joy.
When you are in trouble 95% of the solution is your attitude, and 10% is what you actually have to do. The Word offers wise teachings. Don’t look at how hard the situation may be, but focus on the fact that God can get you out of there and make you prosper. Don’t set your eyes on the difficulty but set your eyes on the way God will use to spare you, don’t talk to God about your problems, talk to your problems about the almighty God you have.
Not a year goes by without problems, get ready so when the storm comes, it may find you prepared and declaring victory.
Romans 8:16-19 says that the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs –heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his suffering sin order that we may also share in his glory. Consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing wit the glory that will be revealed in us, because the creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
You have to understand that suffering is temporary, it always ends, and it ends when God becomes your shelter. The Word is clear when it says that no suffering is bigger than the glory that waits for us. The problems Joseph went through were not stronger than the glory he saw manifested when he became the ruler of Egypt. And the suffering we may go through for doing what God expects us to do is nothing compared to the glory that God will grant us for abiding by His Word.
Psalm 34:19: A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all.
It doesn’t say that the righteous won’t have troubles; it says that we’ll have “many troubles”, but it also says that the Lord will deliver from them all. As you find yourself in trouble the next time, just set your eyes on the glory that is coming your way.
John 16:33 I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.
Jesus didn’t say we would be worry-free, he said He would deliver us from it all. Jesus said, I know you’ll go through suffering, but I ask you one thing trust in me. The Lord asks us to trust in him while and when we’re troubled. Sometimes storms are so strong and they come so often, that we are tempted to stop believing in God. Jesus said calmly it shall pass, but can I ask you to trust in me, if only a little? I will deliver you from it all, just have patience.
You may be in pain for two reasons, because you’re doing the right thing, or because you’re doing to wrong thing. For example, you want to drink alcohol, you want to go back to drugs, to smoking, you can decide not to but self containment can even bring you unease. In this case you could go through the trouble of dying, of hurting someone else, or suffering from cancer. You may go through pain because your boyfriend wants you to go to bed with him. Maybe you’re going through the pain of being a single mother because that man who wants you to go to bed with him will surely walk away if you do; if he loves you, he’ll wait for you. You may be in pain because you refrained yourself from doing something wrong. You may go through suffering because you decided to do the right thing and now you may even be called a fanatic. It’s up to you to decide whether you go through that pain now, or whether you go through the pain when Jesus Christ comes back in all his glory and He’ll say “because you are lukewarm –neither hot nor cold- I am about to spit you out of my mouth”. If you go through pain, let it be because you’re doing the right thing.
Via: cashluna.org
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