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My wife handed me a book recently and stated that I would enjoying reading this one – normally my wife and I do not read the same stuff – she is into romance and fixer uppers and I prefer a good of who done it or action.  But as a great husband would do – I took the book and assured her I would read it…   It is a Max Lucado book (You’ll get through this) and I believed him – I will get through this book.   The very first chapter is talking about a woman whose husband left her for a younger version after several years of marriage (my wife and I have been married almost 40 years)…   So I knew where this one was going………………..
To my surprise it was not going there…  Max was writing about people who are in hard times and giving them encouragement that they will need to get through it….  In the first couple of pages as he is describing people’s troubles he gives them these words of wisdom..
“You’ll get through this.  It won’t be painless.  It won’t be quick.   But God will use this mess for good.  In the meantime don’t be foolish or naïve.  But don’t despair either.  With God’s help you will get through this.”
Allot of the first chapter he references back to Joseph and what his brothers did to him – but explains how God used it for Good.  This was used as an example to explain how God might be working through our current situation…   Here is a paragraph that was encouraging to me:
How?  How did he flourish in the midst of tragedy?  We don’t have to speculate. Some twenty years later the roles were reversed, Joseph as the strong one and his brothers the week ones.  They came to him in the dread.  They feared he would settle the score and throw them into a pit of his own making.  But Joseph didn’t.  And in his explanation we find his inspiration.     Genesis:  50:20 – As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.
One other thought that was brought out in the first chapter was that you need to be patient while God is at work.  Sometimes God’s work takes time – he uses Moses and Noah as examples of how he worked through their circumstances.
I have always wondered why it took me so long to take the direction that I believe God wanted me to take….  He had to do allllllottt of molding to get me where I am today.  I would have preferred to be one of those Old Retired Christians that sit in the congregation doing nothing because I have put my time in.   But as I look back – I see the Wisdom in what God did for me and today I have a much better understanding of what his will may be for me.
But remember as you go through your circumstance at the present time:
“You’ll get through this.  It won’t be painless.  It won’t be quick.   But God will use this mess for good.  In the meantime don’t be foolish or naïve.  But don’t despair either.  With God’s help you will get through this.”
**This is looking like a great book that my wife has given me and I will enjoy reading it – you may want to get you a copy of it – or email me and I will let you have this one when I am finished….