I have had a picture in my head for the past few days that keeps cracking me up. I was reading a blog post of a pastor I follow (Paul Ellis) and was reminded of something I had shared on social media a couple years ago. I went looking for it and chuckled most of the day as my thoughts kept returning to it.
If you’re struggling in your faith, if you feel fear or doubt creeping in, or if you’re questioning just how good God is, well… this post might be just what you need.
“Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! There is nothing too difficult or too wonderful for You…” Jeremiah 32:17 AMP
“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there anything too difficult for Me?” Jeremiah 32:27 AMP
I have had quite a few times where I struggled with seeing how I would get to the other side of a hard situation. I have often been in the thick of it and struggled because there was no light to be seen showing the end of it. Based on history, not everything has a happy ending, so I often don’t expect one in my own life.
We can read through scripture and see that God’s people went through some stuff, didn’t they? I’m not talking about the trouble of their own making (all the many times that God’s people turned away from Him), but about the highs and lows because we live in a fallen world. I’ll tell you this: if there’s a weakness, the enemy will try to exploit it.
Take Joseph for instance: he had a prophetic dream of authority over his family, so his brothers – already struggling with envy – decided to kill him but settled on selling him as a slave. Joseph became 2nd in command of the house he served in, but his master’s wife – with exploitable lustful yearnings – falsely accused him of sexual assault. Off to the dungeons!
All of those would be tough situations. Joseph had no one to speak up for him, no one was coming to redeem him, so if ever there was someone who could wallow a bit in self-pity, I think he could. But scripture doesn’t tell us there was any wallowing. Scripture doesn’t tell us there was any doubt or worry or anxiety. It’s as though God knew we would need to know about Joseph, how he went through a lot of horrible things, but that he trusted God.
Some might say that God had Joseph’s brothers betray him and had the master’s wife falsely accuse him all so God could get him seated next to the Pharoah in Egypt at just the right time. This might bother some people, but I think God is much more trustworthy than that. I think His goodness is highly overlooked when it comes to the story of Joseph.
I don’t think God’s plan for Joseph included slavery or prison, but God was able to do what our GPSs struggle with. He was able to recalculate. I believe God’s original plan for Joseph was perfect and righteous, but He had to recalculate every time the enemy threw a curveball (weakness exploitation). Was God surprised by it? Absolutely not. Did God panic over it? Not even a little bit.
The picture Paul Ellis shared, painted in words, was that of himself sitting with his head in his hands in worry and self-pity over a problem that was seeming impossible. Then He saw Jesus sitting in the chair beside him with the same posture: head in His hands and saying, You’re right… This is a big problem. I don’t know what I’m going to do about it. Then Jesus peeked over at him and threw His head back and laughed and laughed at the absurdity of such a thought.
The reality is that we see a lot of hurt in this life. Many of our plans fall apart, we have loved ones pass away, we see evil at every turn, and because of our own experiences navigating all the hurt this world has to offer, we struggle, don’t we?
Evil has become something to celebrate while godly men are gunned down – and the video of it was available online for days! Wildlife is protected while babies are aborted. Just a 20-second look at current events will tell you that there is evil everywhere! Of course we might be struggling!
We might struggle to stay optimistic. We might struggle to hold on to God’s truth, we might start to reason that all of those promises in the Bible must be for someone else, and we might even come to a point low enough that we say that the evil thing we’re experiencing must be God’s will.
We sit there with our head in our hands thinking about how big the enemy is, he’s too strong and we have no one to speak for us, no one coming to redeem us. We’ve all sat there. Some of us are sitting there now, head in hands, trying to find the strength to move.
Then Jesus, sitting in the chair next to us, extends His hands in our direction and starts to chuckle. As our realization dawns at the sight of the holes where the nails pierced Him through, the chuckle turns to laughter that reaches every corner and permeates the very air that we breathe – air that He created!
In our own strength, the hurdles in this life are too much, but with God… all things are possible (Matthew 19:26, Mark 10:27). All things means exactly that: all things.
There are way too many of us (I’m part of the way too many too often) who struggle to believe what scripture says. You know, the parts about how He will supply all of our needs out of the riches of glory (Philippians 4:19). Or how He always answers above and beyond what we could ask for or imagine (Ephesians 3:20-21).
Or the very basic truth that God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19) and everything is held together by the truth of His Word (Hebrews 1:3). This means we can trust Him. We can trust that He’ll get us to the other side. We can trust Him with every care we have, every concern that comes, and every instant that the enemy tries to exploit a weakness.
We can trust that we no longer stand accused – we’ve passed from judgment to life (John 5:24). From moment to moment, through easy instances and through tough situations, He is there to navigate and recalculate – from glory to glory (II Corinthians 3:18).
I need the reminder of these truths all the time. I need to bring back to mind all the times that God has come through for me and my family. All the times that I’ve sat in that pity-party chair, I need to remember the outcomes that Jesus orchestrated on my behalf. We all need them.
Testimonies, like the story in the Bible of Joseph, are for our benefit. I would love to hear from you of a tough time that God came through for you. I encourage this because He is the same today as He was yesterday… and He’ll be the same tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8). He has empowered us to do the same miracles that He did – and even greater (John 14:12)!
Please share a testimony by commenting or by sending me an email (ohblessitgrace@gmail.com).
It’s time to trust the One who’s in the chair next to you and laugh together.