Such bad treatment! It was really unfair! It doesn’t matter what anyone says, to be treated like that is completely unacceptable, yet there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn’t argue back. He had no rights. He just had to suck it up. Betrayed by his brothers, believed dead by his father, jailed unfairly and left languishing in prison, life held no joy for Jacob’s son Joseph.
Hindsight is 20/20. It was only after a quarter of a century that Joseph, now prospering in Pharaoh’s court, could look back and say to his stunned brothers,
Genesis 45:8
So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God.
What was that? All that pain and adversity – the vindictive actions of others – through all of that, God had a plan?
Yes!
This was my Bible reading this morning, so you can imagine my surprise when I went to my Friday morning ladies Bible study for part two of Andy Stanley’s “In the meantime” and he spoke in much the same way – only citing Paul as an example.
If things are not turning out in your life as you hoped or expected, you need to watch/listen to this eye-opening, mind-changing series.
You can access it for free here.
The gist of the message is that the presence of adversity does not equate to the absence of God and that there is no correlation between God’s apparent lack of co-operation and God’s love. In the New Testament, the men and women who bring us the stories of Jesus face much adversity and they were not put off by it.
Paul was stricken with a physical ailment that hindered the work that God wanted him to do. We don’t know what it was, but it could have been any number of things. eg depression, epilepsy, eye trouble or a recurring disease – whatever it was, we know that for Paul it was painful, humiliating and debilitating. Yet Paul says
2 Corinthians 12:8+
“Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited I was GIVEN A THORN in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me…“
Three times Paul pleaded with the Lord to take it away from him, but instead of doing that, God said,
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”
Paul had to come to terms with his affliction because now, no longer was it only painful, humiliating and debilitating, now it was also permanent.
Paul owns it.
“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
Three take aways:
- Accept your thorn in the flesh as a gift.
- Embracing your inability is a prerequisite to experiencing Christ’s ability.
- God has a purpose in your thorn.
Great words from Andy Stanley.