Dear Faith Family,

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” Genesis 50:20.

I still remember a visit to our child’s pediatrician.  As a newborn, our son needed a shot.  So, there we were.  Our son lying on the examination table.  Next to him was the nurse, needle in hand.  She was having a hard time keeping him still (go figure – she was about to stick a sharp object into his leg!).

Like a good dad, I stepped up to the plate and helped hold my son still.  The nurse delivered the shot.  Our son cried.  His father (let’s not make this personal) cried.  What may have felt like a negative to our son was actually for his own good.  He just couldn’t understand it at the time.

Do you ever fell like what’s happening to you is a negative?  Maybe 2020 as a whole feels like a negative.  I wonder if Joseph struggled with similar feelings?  Read back through his life (Genesis 37-50).  He went from the pedestal to the pit; from the pit to Potiphar’s; and from Potiphar’s to prison.  Sounds like a bunch of negatives.

I’ve noticed that sometimes in “the negative” we are tempted to divorce God from our circumstances.  What we might feel at a given moment can seem to be saying that God isn’t involved.  If He was involved, we wouldn’t be going through this.

There are any number of problems with that line of thinking.  When we divorce God from “the negative” we strip God of His sovereignty (only in our minds of course).  We either have God too busy elsewhere or maybe He’s present as a spectator.  Maybe you think He just doesn’t care.  Maybe you think He’s just mad at you and He’s punishing you?

Although it may have felt like God was uninvolved in what was happening in the life of Joseph; although it may feel like God is uninvolved in what is happening in your life, He is involved!  Let’s face it, God is in control of what is happening in your life – right now.  If not, then He cannot be the sovereign God of the universe (and of you and me).

God is not just sovereign.  He is sovereignly present in your life.  Read back through “the negative” of Joseph’s life.  One truth you will find repeated in those verses is the fact that the Lord was with Joseph.  He tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, (Romans 8:37-39).  He said that He would never leave us nor forsake us, (Hebrews 13:5).

God is involved in what is happening to you right now.  His hands are not tied.  He is not unconcerned.  He means it for good.  It may be that you just can’t understand it yet.

God is also sovereignly present in your life right now.  He cares.  And He is working for your good.  Catch a glimpse of your heavenly Father’s face and you might just see a tear in His eye as He works for your good in “the negative”.  Then start looking around for what He is doing (yes, even in “the negative”).

God meant it,
Pastor Karl