let’s pray…

joseph to his brothers – genesis 50.20 (niv), you intended it to harm me.  but GOD intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done the saving of many lives. 

who would you rather be in this story?  the brothers or joseph?  everyone wants to be joseph but it took him thirty years of faith decisions to get to this point.  GOD intended it for good.  he had GOD’s perspective on his circumstances.                      

that’s a great dream manager, someone who prays for that and looks for that.  you want to take charge of your circumstances?  recognize who’s in charge of your life.  do you want to be the kind of person who can manage things and come in and take control where it’s needed?  then recognize that GOD is the one who’s in control.  that’s how we manage GOD-given dreams.

you may be managing a GOD-given dream right now and i challenge you if you are.  if you’re a parent, you are managing a GOD-given dream.  if you’re married, you’re managing a GOD-given dream.  if you’re in ministry – you’re managing a GOD-given dream. 

let’s pray…

LORD, right now as we pray, would YOU bring to our minds not the dreams that haven’t happened – that’s easy for us to think about – but the ones that either are being fulfilled or have been fulfilled.  bring to our minds not what’s so easy for us to think about – what YOU’ve chosen not to do in our lives.  bring to our minds instead, we pray right now, what YOU are choosing to do.  LORD, help us to see what the next step is.  even if it’s waiting, help us to wait with faith.  with a sense of tenacity that’s GOD-given, that shows the world around us what YOU’re like. 

the truth is a lot of us are waiting on dreams right now.  there are also a lot of people who are managing GOD-given dreams.  LORD, help us not to take those dreams for granted.  many are parents.  it’s so easy, LORD, to take that for granted.  instead of that, would YOU help us to look to YOU?  would YOU make us great by taking YOUr dreams that YOU’ve placed in our lives and glorifying YOU with them.  we admit it, LORD.  we need YOU, we depend on YOU just as joseph did.  we can’t do this on our own.  we’re not in the place of GOD.  and LORD, i pray with all faith and deep belief in the power of GOD to do this. 

i pray, JESUS, for each of us today that when we get to the end of our lives, the end of our dreams, we’ll be able to look back even at the bad that happened and we’ll be able to say with joseph, “they may have intended it for bad but GOD used it for good to accomplish HIS purpose in my life.”  LORD, i pray that this wouldn’t just be a verse in the bible for us that we read.  i pray that this would come true in our lives.  and that moment, whether it’s a year or ten years or seventy years from now, that moment would be a part of the blessing of each one of our lives.  i pray this with faith believing that YOU can do it.  in JESUS’ name.  amen. 

just a thought from the front porch…