Life, and Life to the Full

The story of Joseph greatly encourages and inspires me.  Joseph lived in the land of Canaan and out of 12 brothers, he was their father’s favorite. As expected that caused much strife in the family and one day in a jealous rage, the brothers sold Joseph into slavery.  Potiphar, an Egyptian officer, bought him and through God’s favor, Joseph rose to become Potiphar’s personal attendant, managing his household.  When things seemed to finally be going well for Joseph, he was falsely accused of rape and was thrown into prison. Even in this, the Bible tells us that “God was with Joseph and extended kindness to him.”  At the end of 2 years, God enabled Joseph to interpret a dream of Pharoah that no one else was able to. As a result, Joseph became second in command in the land of Egypt! When there was a severe famine in the land of Canaan, his brothers were forced to come to Egypt to find some food; and Joseph and his brothers were eventually reconciled. Despite all the hardships he faced, Joseph acknowledged that God had sent him ahead of them to preserve many lives. When his brothers were convinced Joseph would get revenge on them when their father died, Joseph spoke these powerful words, “what you meant for evil, God meant it for good.”

We have an enemy who is always feeding us lies and his foremost goal is to steal and destroy our lives. Satan does everything he can to cause us to doubt and to harden our hearts towards God.  By contrast, Jesus has come to give us life, and life to the full.  He is the good shepherd who has laid down his own life for us.  While we don’t know the specific reasons why the Coronavirus is happening, we can be sure of this:  nothing is outside of God’s control and He has demonstrated that He came to save us and not to destroy us. I love how Jen Wilkin said it, “the past holds for him no missed opportunity, the present holds for him no anxiety, the future holds for him no uncertainty.” Even the hardest days have been laid out in His book and for those who place their faith in Christ, we have been given the precious promise that God will work all things out for our good. He is good and He does good.  Even when we cannot see or understand the good, may we like Joseph be quick to trust that God has and will continue to lead us through both the bad and the good. “I don’t need to know what God is doing if I know who God is” (Paul Washer). In other words, if we have confidence in the faithful and unchanging character of God, we will be more likely to be willing to put our trust in God, trusting His ways are better and higher than ours.

Joseph is also a powerful example for us of a person who relied on God in the hard times, and through God’s strength, he lived his days with integrity, making the most of the opportunities God placed in front of him. He persevered in trials for the glory of God. While we don’t have all the details of Joseph’s life, we can safely assume that he had hard, discouraging days too; and yet he displayed His faith in God through the way he lived. Why was Joseph able to do that?  It wasn’t because he was able to muster up large amounts of faith. Even the disciples had to ask Jesus to increase their faith, and they physically walked with Him.  Faith is only as strong as the object it is in. Joseph put his faith in the only great God and His spirit in Joseph made all the difference.

In this season of life I feel like God is loosening my grip on the things I depend on other than God for joy, satisfaction and significance. As He prunes me and takes away the dead branches, it is painful. In the everyday rhythm of life, isn’t it so easy to be lulled to sleep of our desperate need of a Saviour? Isn’t this the story of all human history; God does His most amazing work in our hearts in the difficult seasons. As the old, dead branches come off, God replaces them with new branches full of new life and fruit. What is life that is truly life?  It is knowing who God truly is, and not just knowing about God; there’s a huge difference! Job was another person in scripture who suffered greatly; he lost everyone and everything dear to him. Yet after all of that he says, ‘I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted” How was he able to say that? It was because God is close to the broken-hearted, and often we experience God’s sufficiency the most when we are most broken and aware of our neediness.

1 Timothy 6:17-19 sums up all of this so well. It says: “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.  Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.  In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life”

May we ask God for strength to live these days during the pandemic as we should so we can walk in the good deeds He has prepared for us so that people can see the hope within us. May we depend more than ever on the Word of God because faith comes from hearing His Word.  Look to Christ when the enemy is tempting us with discouragement and weariness. Most of all, may we continue to become more like Jesus; as He faced his greatest suffering on the cross, He submitted to the will of the Father and provided the world the way to come to saving faith in Him through trust and repentance. Jesus is the author and perfector of our faith and is the only way to have life, and life to the full, in all seasons!