Even our suffering is part of God’s plan for the greater good Ceilon Aspensen, January 23, 2024February 4, 2024 Get the FREE worksheet for this program here. The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is that even our suffering is part of God’s plan for the greater good. This verse is not part of our daily reading today, but it was the first thing (and is always the first thing) that comes to my mind when reading this chapter in Genesis: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” –Romans 8:28 Genesis 45-46: When we are suffering and subject to unjust judgements and circumstances, we should keep our focus on God and what he requires of us in all things: trust, obedience, faithfulness to his laws. Matthew 23: Practice what you preach, obey and live out the spirit of the law, not the church traditions that create burdens for the congregation, and be humble servants. Psalms 23: God is with me every step of my life, guiding me to good things, keeping my feet on the path, and keeping me from danger and harm. Proverbs 23: Discipline and focus are the way to peace and prosperity. Don’t focus on the outcome; focus on the work. Today’s installment from Genesis show us that we cannot know the “big picture” that we are part of, and all we can do is to behave as gracefully as possible in our situation. If we stay true to God’s principles until the end, we may get to see the meaning of it all, and that is the real reward for not having wavered from the path. Joseph endured a lot of suffering over the decades. His brothers plotted to murder him because they were jealous. They settled for selling him into slavery. While a slave, his master’s wife tried unsuccessfully to seduce him and when he spurned her she framed him for attempting to seduce her (a crime punishable by death at that time, but Potiphar seemed to know his wife and simply sent Joseph to prison). In every situation, Joseph made the best of his circumstances and trusted in God to take care of him. he never sought vengeance or revenge–he left the fate of his persecutors to God and stayed out of it. As a result, he became the second most powerful man in Egypt. He also ended up saving his own family from death by starvation in the process. Because he was patient, focused on his own work, and minded his own business for the duration of his trials, in the end he was given the gift of being able to see his part in God’s larger plan for the entire country of Egypt, all the surrounding countries that depended on Egypt for their survival during the famine, and also his brothers’ repentance, restoration, and redemption. He was also reunited with his father and his younger brother. It is a classic happy ending. When we become impatient with our circumstances and our suffering and take matters into our own hands, we may deprive ourselves of the kind of resolution Joseph was able to experience. God’s timetable can seem slow by our standards, but it is worth it to leave matters to him and keep ourselves busy doing good while we await the outcome. In today’s passage from Matthew, we see that anyone who uses Jesus’ teachings to exalt himself instead of serving the people is a false prophet. Our purpose is to live the teachings of Jesus and demonstrate his love for others so that people can see him through us and come to know God themselves as a result. We are to facilitate that process without placing unnecessary burdens on people. Also: Jesus teaches us in this passage how to recognize the con artists who use the trappings of the church to manipulate and use people for their own gain. Beware of these people and don’t get involved with them. Most of the people I’ve ever met think Psalm 23 is for funerals. It’s not. It’s for dark times. Every time I read the Lord of the Rings and get to the part where Frodo and Sam are walking through Mordor I think of this psalm. “The Valley of the shadow of death” is this earthly existence which is full of snares and pitfalls. God will guide us through it all of our days if we let him. This short little psalm describes our relationship to God in this world, what he does for us to guide us from birth to death, and what awaits us in the end if we are faithful and trust his guidance. Proverbs 23 is all about discipline: how we discipline ourselves, how we discipline our children. It is also about staying focused on what is important and the law of logical, natural consequences. We are instructed to work diligently to provide for our families, but we are also instructed to not focus on the outcome. Rather, we are instructed to focus on the work for the sake of the work. It’s the work we do that is important, not the outcome. We should be present in the NOW. If we are diligent, focused, and honest in our work, the outcome will take care of itself, and it will also take care of us. By that same token, when we become acquainted with people who want to do us harm we should not focus on them; we should continue to focus on the work and our own behavior. We should remain faithful to God’s laws. If possible, we should get as far away from them as we can and keep doing what we know is right. As with the work, if we don’t focus on wrongdoers and retribution, their own bad behavior will take them down. This is none of our business; their evil deeds are between them and God. You can join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day. If you haven’t gotten the FREE “Read the Bible in a Year” worksheet yet, you can Get the FREE worksheet for this program here. It is not necessary for you to start on January 1st–you can start from the beginning on whatever date you get the worksheet. Join us! Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit. This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.” To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts. Please follow and like us: Uncategorized