Monthly Thought

February 2008

A little while back I read through the story of Joseph and was contemplating the fact that people generally seem to have a habit of using circumstances as excuses why things are not working out for them, and for who they are, and why they are the way they are.

I still remember the day I was watching something on the telly about single parent families, disadvantage and crime, and a relationship between the three. I come from a single parent family, my parents got divorced when I was one and I last saw my dad when I was six, and very rarely before then but I didn’t actually mind and don’t think it affected me negatively as far as I can see. I loved my childhood and I was loved to bits by my mum and had an amazingly close relationship with her. It didn’t seem to matter to me that I had to spend a fair bit of time by myself – the German school day finishes earlier, so my secondary school afternoons were pretty much spent at home waiting for mum to get back, as I come from the country, transport to friends was a problem as most of my mates lived over an hour drive away.

When I watched the program I felt extremely annoyed that just because of my circumstances there was an implied disadvantage and more of a possibility of crime in my life – neither were something I had considered.

So - JOSEPH – how many bad circumstances can you have in your life?! His brothers hated him so much that they considered killing him, but then went for the lesser evil and sold him into slavery. He was falsely accused of a crime (how I would have hated that, not that I fancied slavery) – Rape - and thrown into prison and forgotten in prison for 2 years!

AND YET, he trusted in God and faithfully gave his best, and God prospered him and brought good out of all those bad and evil situations. This was not a brief ordeal, there are many years passing by in that story. The end result is amazing – he was reconciled with his family, second in command in the land of Egypt, and a crucial part of saving a nation and his own family from starvation,

WHY, because he faithfully took each task and did his best, he worked hard, whatever the situation and God was with him and turned his situation around.

Some circumstances in our lives are rotten, horrible and unfair and we want to cry out and put things right or sometimes we just want give up and be what people think we are anyway.

BUT what we really need is to seek out God, to trust him and to faithfully give our best for God in whatever our situation.

For example, if you hate your teacher because he/she treats you unfairly, picks on you, always singles you out, or maybe just isn’t that great at teaching ….. don’t retaliate by being horrible to that person – do the right thing by God, be friendly and kind and give the work your best shot.

Don’t let your circumstances determine what kind of a person you are – be the best you can be for and with God - trust HIM – He can turn around and bring good out of the worst situations.

You can read about Joseph in Genesis 37 and 39 – 47!

If you need to talk about stuff or need prayer or have questions, just email me on ErikaWillis@gmail.com :)

Erika