"The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master." (Gen 39:2)
If you saw a man go from being the most favored in his family to being a slave, a property of another, what would be your conclusion?If you saw the same man arrested, in handcuffs and chains and jailed for sexually assaulting a woman, what would conclude?Certainly you wouldn't say the Lord was with him. You may most likely conclude that he was a cursed man who was reaping the consequences of his sin or something.
But look at the text. It was said of Joseph that the Lord was with him and he was prosperous man. God called a slave a prosperous man. How can God be with him and let him be enslaved? How can God be with him and let him be put in prison? How can someone who is a slave be called prosperous?
This text is teaching us to separate the approval and the presence of God from the physical circumstances of a person. God can be with a man and then he loses his job. God can be with a man and let him be betrayed. God can be with a man and let others take advantage of him. He could be with a man and let him hit rock-bottom in the pit of life. The current circumstance of a person is not the true measure of his approval of God. Never conclude that adversity is always as a result of a man's disobedience to God. Usually it comes because of obedience.
Having said that, there is a huge difference between a man who has God with him in adversity and the one who does not. The man who has God with him takes the lemons of adversity and turns them into lemonade through the blessing of God. He is not made bitter by what he's going through but he applies the wisdom and presence of God to the circumstances he face.
Joseph did this. Though he was forced into slavery, he applied the blessing of God to slavery and it became a supervisory position. He applied it to false accusation and betrayal and walked in it in prison and became the prison head.
The blessing does not care about where you are physically. It is unconcerned about status. It works everywhere. You might be down but God is with you. You might look as if you are going down in life to others but God is with you. You might be on a job you dislike, but God is with you. You might find yourself at a point where your current reality tells you something is wrong, but God is with you. You may have just failed an examination, experienced a divorce, jilted, lost all the members of your church to a split, lost a huge business deal on behalf of your company.
Learn to separate the situations you face from the vitality of your relationships with God and his approval. You might just be passing through that valley as allowed by God. You may be undergoing a test of what is truly in you heart. Being down does not mean you are abandoned. God can live in the pit as well as the palace. He doens't mind going to prison with His man.
So no matter your current status, get yourself up and start to live in the blessing. Refuse to allow a pity party. You are only down temporarily, not out. You are in a passing phase of life, not a parking lot. Apply the blessing of God in every situation. Handle each season of your life the same way- face it with all you've got. Reign over circumstances by being faithful where you are. Be the best jobless person, the best divorced person, the best prisoner, the best pastor who is starting all over again. Put all you've got into what you've been presented with. You are on your way to the palace but you are only having a stop at the pit or prison. Be encouraged that God has not forsaken you. He is with you to help you succeed.
Decision of the Day
I will not equate downward trends in my life to the absence of God. I understand that I can be in the will of God and and things don't look the way they are generally supposed to look for a blessed man. I will handle every situation of life, confident that God is with me.
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