You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
- Genesis 50:20
People hurt us a lot, intentionally and even unintentionally, regardless of the intent, hurt is still hurt.
It could be something as little as hearing that someone you considered a friend was saying bad things behind your back.
It could be something major like someone placing the blame on you for wrongdoings that could result in you losing financially or even a job.
People tend to hurt others to move themselves forward in the world.
In the book of Genesis, we see this play out several times in the life of Joseph – his brother’s jealousy pushed them to sell him into slavery and lie to their father about his disappearance.
His owner’s wife was so smitten by his good looks that she threw herself at him and when he refused her advances, she lied about him to her husband and he was thrown in prison.
But God had a plan – and that plan took the horrible things that people did to Joseph and turned them into a path for Joseph to save all of Israel from famine, including his brothers who set the wheel in motion in the first place.
People will continue to hurt us.
We need to know that no matter what Is done to us, we should keep our eyes on God, He knows what we are going through and even though we may not see it today, there is something good that will come of every harm that is done to us, if we just put our hope in Him.
#dailybreadbykitty
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Hey all, Kitty here 🙂
ReplyDeleteI am blessed with an amazing mentor and he responded today with this, and I really wanted to share with all my readers.
The Bible shows us that God can indeed use the evil of man and turn it into His glory. I have always said that sometimes God may have to inconvenience you to get you to His blessings.
Joseph’s story is a prime example of both. Thanks for the reminder.
Romans 8:28 says, “For those who love God all things work together for the good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” “All things” includes both good and bad things. God can use struggles, heartbreaks and tragedies in ways to bring about His glory and our good. Such events, even though we don’t understand the reason for them, are part of His perfect, divine plan. If God could not control evil, He would not be God. His sovereignty demands that He be in control of everything, even things that we dread or consider as bad!
Our wise and perfect God can, and sometimes does, use the sin already existing in our world to fulfill His purpose. The perfect example of this is Jesus’ crucifixion: the murder of Christ was an evil act, but through it God redeemed us all and “disarmed all demonic powers and authorities” (Colossians 2:15).