working for your good!

"If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved."                       Gen. 43:14

Life can really pack a punch sometimes! Often, the blow feels as if it will take us out. It's real! It's true, and difficult all at the same time.

In the story of Jacob and his sons, in particular, when they had to return home and bring their younger brother, Benjamin, their father cited his losses to that point. We have all suffered some kind of loss in this life. We can identify with Jacob's fears. They were real, they were tangible, and they spoke to his greatest nightmare. 

It has been through detrimental losses of various kinds that I have come to see the wisdom of God. It wasn't easy and still isn't. Romans 8:28 promises us that, "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." What Jacob could have never known then, when his son Joseph was said to have died, was how God was in the mix preparing a future with great blessing for his entire family. It was going to take some years before he, Jacob, would see the benefit of all his sorrow and grief. 

The threat of grief visited Jacob again when he had to let Benjamin go to Egypt with his brothers in order that Simeon could go free. What a test and trial that was. Jacob is now older and seemingly, more fearful. It doesn't matter how old we become, tests and trials can bear down on us and hold us in its grip. In Jacob's case, he suffered the loss of Joseph and there was no closure for him.

What Jacob didn't realize was that the blessing was right around the corner! Things were about to change for him, for the good. God was about to restore the years that the locusts had eaten. He could have never imagined that Joseph was still alive, let alone seeing him again, in his lifetime! What seemed to be another grief about to happen, was actually a blessing about to drop!

Sorrows, burdens, griefs, and losses are devastating and crippling. It's very hard to endure those situations. VERY HARD! There are times when we are left to wonder why everything is working against us. There are times when we can't catch a break! I have learned from personal experience that not only is God always in the mix, He is orchestrating specific events in our lives that will benefit us in the long or the short run. If you just look back in hindsight at some of the things that have happened to you over your life time, you could see how certain things turn out to be a benefit and a blessing to you. 

We could never know what God is up to in our lives. We only know that we are to trust Him and follow His lead. It's always darkest before the dawn. The story of Jacob and his sons is living proof that despite weaknesses and failures and sometimes our own sin, God is still in the mix orchestrating with plans of His own! All things will work for our good, not 'Some Things', All Things!

Be encouraged! Hold on and trust God! Lean hard on His grace, that special ingredient that will give you the ability to hang in there and endure!

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