GOD CAN TURN NEGATIVES  INTO

GREAT VICTORIES

The story and life of Joseph in the Scriptures is a very real and challenging one, for it shows us so much of what can happen in a person’s life when they/we carry a vision from God. Joseph had a vision from God, but it made his brothers jealous and they rejected him and sold him to strangers “to get rid of him.” Yet, as we follow through on the events of Joseph’s life, we see that God was with him every step of the way; He blessed him and used him to help others. He brought victory out of negative happenings.

In life it is not so much what others say or do to us, but what are our re-actions to such? Are we so committed to the cause of Christ that we are able to maintain a right attitude, and keep a right, sweet spirit toward God and people? While we do not always understand it, God does use the negative happenings in our lives to work something out for our good ~ something that would not have happened if we had not gone through that rebuff, misunderstanding, rejection, ‘put down’, etc. God sees the end from the beginning, and He knows what He has planned for us, and the future He has called us to. We need to remind ourselves that all the great men and women of the Bible were often misunderstand, despised, rejected and not listened to. But those things did not stop them from becoming the great men and women they were. God turned their rebuffs into victory. Instead of becoming stumbling-blocks, those rebuffs became stepping-stones into something greater in God.

Joseph had a number of years where it seemed that everything was against him. But God was preparing him for something that was far bigger and greater than any living person could comprehend. God raised him up to be ruler over the land of Egypt and, in that position, Joseph was able to minister to and feed thousands! Even his very own brothers, who rejected him, came to rely on him and to be nourished by him! What a man! What a calling that God entrusted to him. The way God used to get him to the top was certainly not a way any of us would choose. But then, God’s ways are not our ways, and His ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9)! Jesus said that “it is impossible but that offences will come, but woe unto him through whom they come” (Luke 17:1). Life is such that we cannot avoid some negative happenings coming against us. It is how we handle them that really counts. We also have to leave those who bring offence(s) against us to God. Let God deal with them! If you notice in the life of Joseph, his brothers always had a guilty conscious over what they had done to Joseph. They had to live with themselves for what they had done!

Joseph obviously kept a right heart attitude toward God through all his negative circumstances. And God brought him through to a place of great victory. Right now, if you are still holding grudges, resentments, unforgiveness, etc., against anyone at all, you must deal with it/them and seek God’s forgiveness for you, and with those who have hurt you. Otherwise, no matter what has happened (and it has already happened, and you cannot change that), it will rob you and eventually “destroy” your calling in God. But you can change the way you think, believe and act toward that person or persons. Your attitude towards people affects your attitude towards God. And none of us can afford to have a wrong or bad attitude toward God. We have to let it go, rise up and know afresh that God has a call upon our lives, and He is able to get us to where we need to be going. No matter what, TRUST GOD!

Let us all learn from the life of Joseph. He sets a wonderful example of how God can bring someone through who has been wrongly accused, overlooked and forgotten, to a place of being able to impact multitudes of lives to the glory of God. Know for sure that God has not finished with any of us yet! He is on your case, so learn to more quickly co-operate with Him and His purposes, and He will amaze you at what He can do in and through you! ~ Rodney W. Francis.