solving or surviving our setbacks...

it’s important in life to see the difference between solving our setbacks and surviving our setbacks. 

you’re not going to solve all your setbacks.  you’re going to have some setbacks in life that you’re not going to solve.  joseph apparently never solved this setback of the unjust accusation that was brought against him.  he could have spent the energy of the rest of his life trying to solve that saying, “i was unjustly accused!  it wasn’t right!  i'm going to fight with all my might to make sure everybody knows that!”  but he doesn’t do that.  he survives his setbacks.  instead of allowing that setback to govern the rest of his life he survived it and moved on. 

you and i are going to face some setbacks that we’ll never solve in this world.  they’re waiting for the next world for GOD to bring about HIS justice.  the truth is, when it comes to GOD-given dreams, many of us have a mental finger pointing at something, some one in our life that’s keeping that dream from coming about.  it’s a setback.  it’s something that happened.  we’re saying, “until that’s solved i can’t go on to accomplish GOD’s dream…  until they come to me and ask forgiveness for what they did, i can’t go on to accomplish GOD’s dream…. until GOD comes to me and explains to me exactly why HE allowed that circumstance to happen in my life, i can’t go on.  HE’s got to do that first.  until i understand why CHRIStians act like they do sometimes i can’t go on.” 

survive the setbacks.  determine to go on.  stop letting them steal GOD’s dream for your life. 

joseph could have spent the rest of his life mad at potiphar and his wife.  but because of GOD’s grace within him he recognized, “GOD’s still with me even with what they’ve done to me.”  even with what they’ve done to you, GOD’s still with you.  they can’t take away GOD’s presence.  they can’t take away GOD’s dream.  i wish we could solve all the setbacks while we’re in this world.  we can solve some but there will be many that we don’t.  stop letting someone else steal GOD’s dream for your life

as we think about the life of joseph and what he talks about waiting for a dream and how dreams are tested and how we get dreams in our lives, i want us to remind ourselves once again that JESUS was born into this world to say to us loudly and clearly, “i intend to accomplish those dreams, GOD’s dreams in your life.”  HE couldn’t have spoken more loudly than that.  i intend to allow those dreams to come true.  those dreams of healing, those dreams of change, those dreams of a world that GOD is at work in.  GOD came to this world to say to you and i that HE wants to be at work in this world through us.  that’s the dream.

just a thought from the front porch…

learning to survive the setbacks...

in waiting out your GOD given dream, joseph in genesis the first book in the old testament shows us to learn to survive the setbacks.

they’re going to happen.  you’re on this one button elevator.  you’re on your way down.  you’ve reached the bottom.  you’re in potiphar’s house.  you’re leading slaves.  you’re facing temptations.  you’re saying no to temptations.  but then look what happens.

genesis 39.11 (niv), one day he went into the house to attend his duties and none of the household servants were inside.  she caught him by his cloak in her hand and said, “come to bed with me.”  he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house in his undergarments.  when she saw that he’d left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house she called the household servants.  “look!  this hebrew has been brought in to make sport of us.  he came in here to sleep with me and i screamed and when he heard me scream for help he left his cloak beside me and he ran out of the house.”  she kept his cloak beside her until the master came home and she told him this story.  when the master heard the story saying, “this is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger.

some people think that he burned with anger as much at his wife as with joseph.  just an interpretation.  but the law back in egypt said that joseph could have been killed for this and the fact that he was just thrown into prison may mean that potiphar was just as mad at her as he was at joseph.  he really knew what was going on.  that’s a thought about what might have happened.

joseph's master took him and he put him in prison where the king’s prisoners were confined. 

he’s at the bottom already.  he’s a slave.  now he’s a prisoner-slave.  would you call that a setback?  a setback when you’re at the top and you go a little notch down but you can still see the top of the mountain that’s a little bit of a setback.  but when somebody knocks you all the way to the bottom of the mountain and then they dig a hole for you and they throw you down.  that’s a setback! 

and that’s what happened to joseph.  now he’s a prisoner.  and in this chapter genesis 39 there’s  a key truth that show us how joseph was able to survive the setback.

-again and again we see that the LORD was with joseph.  in 39.2 (niv) as a slave, the LORD was with joseph and he prospered even in the house of his egyptian master. 

joseph is thrown into prison at the end of the chapter, 39.21 (niv), but while joseph was there in prison the LORD was with him and HE showed him kindness and HE granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.  the warden put joseph in charge of all of those he held in prison.

here he is leading in a prison.  he keeps fulfilling the dream wherever he is. 

and the warden paid no attention to anything under joseph's care because the LORD was with joseph. 

GOD wants to make sure we get this one.  whether it’s in a slave’s house, in a prison, GOD is with joseph.  so you can survive the setbacks, no matter where you are. 

just a thought from the front porch…