Sat Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

If you are in one of those times where everything is going wrong and you keep getting dealt the bad hand and keep getting what you don’t deserve and you can’t catch a break, I want you to remember there are four things that God is always doing in your life. If you will remember this you can beat anything that life throws your way.

First of all, God is always directing you.

“The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way.” (Psalm 37:23)
God is always protecting you.

“The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” (Psalm 121:5-8)

Not even a sparrow falls to the ground that God doesn’t know about it. The very hairs on your head are numbered. God is taking care of you.

God is also correcting you.

That is, He allows these things to come into your life to test you, to try you, and to toughen you. Do you know why? God’s greatest concern is not what happens to you, but how you respond to what happens to you. Do you know why God let Joseph experience all these wrong, terrible things? We don’t have to wonder. The psalmist tells us.

“He had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters; his neck was put in a collar of iron; until what he had said came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.” (Psalm 105:17-19)

God is also perfecting you.

Somebody put it this way, “God isn’t so concerned with delivering us out of the mess we are in as He is in seeing us grow out of the mess we are.” When you look back on Joseph’s life you realize that all these wrong things were preparing him, growing him, and grooming him for the right things. There is one last thing Joseph knew that you need to know.

God Has Promised Me His Special Presence

When you read Joseph’s story it does have a happy ending. He went from being a dreamer, to a worker, to a prisoner, to a ruler. There was a secret to his success. There is a reason why Joseph made it from the pit and prison to the palace.

In Genesis 39:2 we are told,

“The Lord was with Joseph.” (Genesis 39:2)

In verse 3 we are told,
“His master saw that the Lord was with him.” (Genesis 39:3)

In verse 21,

“The Lord was with Joseph.” (Genesis 39:21)

In verse 23,

“The Lord was with him.” (Genesis 39:23)

The only New Testament commentary on Joseph, Acts 7:9 reminds us,

“And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him.” (Acts 7:9)
In all of those tough times and all those times he was getting what he didn’t deserve, all those times he was taking life’s worst shots and all those times life was at its most unfair, God was with Joseph.