I was driving through town the other day thinking about a situation a friend had just asked me to pray for. As I was intensely reflecting on all the details and asking God to intervene, I spoke out loud: “What a mess God. You have to fix this!” Humanly speaking the situation seemed completely out of control and there was no way out. In fact, the more people tried to fix things, the worse the situation became. One thing I knew though: God could take care of everything because for Him nothing is impossible! Even after we make a big mess of life, God can fix it if we let Him. I just finished reading the book of Genesis. Have you read Genesis lately? Talk about a big mess, beginning with the biggest of them all when Adam and Eve decided to eat of the fruit God had asked them not to. Then there was Abraham who kept hiding from others the fact that Sarah was his wife and who had a difficult time waiting for the son God had promised him. Isaac must have learned from his parents because he did something similar with Rebekah. Then there’s Jacob. Oh Jacob! He really wanted to have the birthright of the first born son, so he deceived his own father in order to receive it. Of course that made things even worse and he had to run from home. His life was a complete disaster! Then the deceiver was deceived and Jacob was tricked into marrying his uncle’s two daughters, which caused many family problems as long as both sisters lived. And even after Rachel died, her son Joseph was loved by the father, but hated by his own brothers. The hatred was such that they had all the intentions on killing him, though they ended up selling Joseph as a slave instead. Of course they couldn’t tell their father what they had done, so they covered their actions up by telling Jacob that his beloved Joseph must have been eaten by a wild animal. Poor Jacob and poor Joseph. And if things weren’t bad enough for him as a slave, Joseph ends up being put in prison for something he didn’t do.
What a mess! These were God’s chosen, His special possession. He had great plans for these people, but they kept getting in the way, doing their own thing, and carrying their own plans trying to fix their problems. However, their lives and the lives of others just kept getting worse. What amazes me is that the God who says that “all things work together for the good of those who love Him,” was able to transform these people’s bad decisions into incredible blessings. In the end, Abraham became a friend of God; Jacob the deceiver became Israel because God prevails; Joseph became second in command over the whole land in Egypt, which enabled him to save his brothers, the rest of his family, and a whole nation from famine. Because Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and his sons loved God, decided to follow Him no matter what, and believed He could help them, God picked up all the broken pieces, all the bad decisions, and all the consequences from those bad decisions, and transformed them into something that brought glory to His name. A happy ending. Wow! How amazing!
I talked with my friend this afternoon and she shared some of the things God has been doing in her life. Slowly she is getting a little glimpse of His work and that’s enough to give her strength to press on.
Wherever you are in your life, know that God is at work and will take care of you. You may have made lots of poor decisions. You may be suffering because of other people’s bad choices. Whatever your case, know that if you remain in God’s side, He will pick up the mess you are in and transform it into something amazingly beautiful! He did it for His people long ago, He's doing it for my friend, and He'll do it for you too.
"Now then, stand still and see this great thing the LORD is about to do before your eyes!"
I Samuel 12:16
"The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them."
Psalm 34:7
