Inside your body there is a tireless muscle that contracts
around 60 times per minute, night and day, when you're awake or asleep. In your
lifetime your heart will pump life-sustaining, oxygen rich blood throughout your
body. It works- very hard – keeping us
alive. We do not think much about it
unless someone we love or know dies of a heart attack. Then, for a few days, we
are aware of the beating heart in our chest.
This Monday morning I want to remind you that God is at
work in your life, much like your heart, all the time, night and day!
Unlike your heart, He will not tear or wear out. He is sustaining us, pressing
us towards His purposes and working for our good. Paul was inspired to give us this truth to
live by. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of
those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those
God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son,
that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." (Romans 8:28-29,
NIV) Evil pushes back against His plan. He gives humanity the freedom to work with Him
or to resist Him to their own peril.
But, His work on our behalf is constant!
Joseph, that amazing man whose story is told at the end of Genesis,
experienced the tireless working of the Lord. When we read his life
story we have the advantage of seeing it all – beginning to end. We are amazed
at the ‘coincidences’ that bring him from one critical encounter to the next.
He had to live by faith through years of difficulty to reach the place God had
planned for him. God had made a promise
to Abraham that his descendants would be a blessing to the whole earth. He also
saw that a famine in the land would wipe them out and He prepared a deliverer –
Joseph! The teenage boy had visions of
his future, glimpses of the power, but had no clue what those visions meant!
His jealous brothers sold him to slave traders who carried
him to Egypt. Potiphar bought him and Joseph’s diligent efforts soon brought
him to the management of the household. Potiphar’s wife took an unhealthy interest
in him and when he rebuffed her advances, she falsely accused him and he landed
in prison. After years there, he met 2 men from the Pharaoh’s service, who were
imprisoned. They sought his interpretation of their dreams as he was respected
as a man who knew God by that time. What he told them was true. One man was
released back to Pharaoh’s service and promptly forgot all about Joe until …
the king had a dream he could not understand. Joe was called and wisely, by the Spirit of
God, interpreted the dream. He became
the Prime Minister of Egypt, leading the country to prepare for the terrible
famine God revealed in the dream.
Years later, his brothers stood before him in the court to
get food for their starving families back in Canaan. After revealing to them
that he was the brother they had sold into slavery decades before, Joseph told
them this - “Don’t be
afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God
intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving
of many lives." (Genesis 50:19-20, NIV)
Two questions for you today –
Will you trust God’s work
that continues in your life, all the time?
Will you cooperate with His
purposes so that you will be “conformed to the likeness of His Son?” (become like Jesus!)
There is a place of spiritual rest in the center of the will
of God. We find His will best when we choose daily obedience and faith, trusting
that He is at work equally when the sun shines and when the storms rage.
"We know that in all
things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose.”
Join Paul in this
statement of faith today. He was imprisoned
for preaching the Gospel. But he was not whining, not condemning himself for
some imagined failing, or even doubting the plan of God. Make his faith your faith. Here is the word from the Word. "I
know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I
have entrusted to him for that day." (2 Timothy 1:12, NIV)
_________
(The hymn that celebrates
God’s wonderful work for us)
Great is Thy
faithfulness
O God my
Father
There is no
shadow
Of turning
with Thee
Thou changest
not
Thy
compassions they fail not
As Thou hast
been
Thou forever
wilt be
Great is Thy
faithfulness
Great is Thy
faithfulness
Morning by
morning
New mercies I
see
All I have
needed
Thy hand hath
provided
Great is Thy
faithfulness
Lord unto me
Summer and
winter
And springtime
and harvest
Sun moon and
stars
In their
courses above
Join with all
nature
In manifold
witness
To Thy great
faithfulness
Mercy and love
Pardon for sin
And a peace
that endureth
Thy own dear
presence
To cheer and
to guide
Strength for
today
And bright
hope for tomorrow
Blessings all
mine
With ten
thousand beside
Thomas Obediah
Chisholm | William Marion Runyan
© Words: Public
Domain
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