by Stacy
Read Living The Dream Part 1 here
Picture God saying to you, “There are certain things I want to do with you, FILL IN YOUR NAME.” God has a plan and He is directing your steps. Do you realize how many trials Joseph went through? He was thrown in a pit by his own family and sold into slavery by them. He was falsely accused of rape. He was thrown into prison and spent 13 years in jail!
Get this in your head. Bad things don’t happen to people who are just involved in bad things. That theology is false doctrine and I rebuke it in the name of Jesus. I don’t get how people believe that, but I do see throughout Scripture how the Lord’s children suffer trials and tragedy. Take Jesus for example. God Himself suffered. If the cross wasn’t fair, what makes you think that your life is going to be fair? Joseph went through the bad, yet still knew the promise and dream of God was coming.
God is always directing you. Psalm 37:23-24,
“If the LORD delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with His hand.”
God tells us in His Word that not even a sparrow falls to the ground that the Lord doesn’t know about. How much more does He love you!
God is always protecting you. Psalm 121: 5-8,
God is always protecting you. Psalm 121: 5-8,
“The LORD watches over you---…The LORD will keep you from all harm---he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”
God is always correcting you. Don’t ask “if God really loves us than why do we have these problems?” God’s greatest concern is not what happens to you, but how you respond to it, in it. Psalm 105:17-19,
“and he sent a man before them—Joseph, sold as a slave. They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons, till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the LORD proved him true.”
This is the testing. He went through all kinds of stuff “till the word of the LORD proved him true.” Reading this makes my life look like a cakewalk. I have never been sold into slavery, been thrown into prison in shackles, been in jail for 13 years. Wow. REALITY CHECK.
God is perfecting you. God isn’t so concerned about delivering us out of the mess we’re in, but delivering us out of the mess we are. Joseph went from being a dreamer to a slave worker to a prisoner to a Ruler over the kingdom. And all throughout Genesis in the story of Joseph, the Lord makes it clear He was with him. Genesis 39:2, 3, 23, “The LORD was with Joseph…” “The LORD was with him…” “The LORD was with Joseph…” Even in Acts 7:9 when Luke recounts the story of Joseph in the New Testament, he reminds us that “God was with Joseph and rescued him from all his troubles.” Maybe we need to say that out loud more often to remind ourselves. “The LORD is with Stacy.” Say it out loud for yourself.
In case, you aren’t familiar with the end of the story, Joseph becomes a ruler over Egypt and there are all kinds of other crazy, awesome things that happen along the way. He ends up being given the opportunity to show mercy and forgiveness to his brothers and essentially save his entire family’s lives in the midst of a famine. This is a perfect testament to how God desires us to behave, react, and live. Joseph could have let bitterness and scorn and hatred fill his heart and cut off his brothers from help, but he knew and had always known the LORD was with him. His story gives us a perfect picture into the heart of God. Bless your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Love mercy and walk humbly with God. His story can be found in Genesis 37-50.
Though there are times you may not see Him, feel Him, sense Him, He is:
Directing you
Protecting you
Correcting you
Perfecting you
Following Jesus is making God-given dreams come to life.
See you in the Round,
Stacy
*Scripture quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide
God is perfecting you. God isn’t so concerned about delivering us out of the mess we’re in, but delivering us out of the mess we are. Joseph went from being a dreamer to a slave worker to a prisoner to a Ruler over the kingdom. And all throughout Genesis in the story of Joseph, the Lord makes it clear He was with him. Genesis 39:2, 3, 23, “The LORD was with Joseph…” “The LORD was with him…” “The LORD was with Joseph…” Even in Acts 7:9 when Luke recounts the story of Joseph in the New Testament, he reminds us that “God was with Joseph and rescued him from all his troubles.” Maybe we need to say that out loud more often to remind ourselves. “The LORD is with Stacy.” Say it out loud for yourself.
In case, you aren’t familiar with the end of the story, Joseph becomes a ruler over Egypt and there are all kinds of other crazy, awesome things that happen along the way. He ends up being given the opportunity to show mercy and forgiveness to his brothers and essentially save his entire family’s lives in the midst of a famine. This is a perfect testament to how God desires us to behave, react, and live. Joseph could have let bitterness and scorn and hatred fill his heart and cut off his brothers from help, but he knew and had always known the LORD was with him. His story gives us a perfect picture into the heart of God. Bless your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Love mercy and walk humbly with God. His story can be found in Genesis 37-50.
Though there are times you may not see Him, feel Him, sense Him, He is:
Directing you
Protecting you
Correcting you
Perfecting you
Following Jesus is making God-given dreams come to life.
See you in the Round,
Stacy
*Scripture quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide
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