Worth it in the End

Have you ever wondered why God allows us to go through hard times?

I’d be willing to bet that you have. If God loves us and is a good God, then surely He could make sure that we never go through hard times, never have our hearts broken, and never experience tragedy.

And yet all the above are a part of life. Consider how Joseph was imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, and spent three years in a dungeon of a prison cell. The reality is he probably could have given in to the temptation to sleep with Potiphar’s wife and no one would have known; instead, he does the noble thing and refuses to sin against God, and he goes to jail for it.

How is that fair? To Joseph, it isn’t. But in God’s sovereignty something good came from it. Sometimes God allows us to see the fruit of our suffering, and sometimes that fruit is not produced for centuries after our death.

Last week in Nicaragua one of our group members was teaching the children the story of Joseph. There was an entire lesson dedicated to his imprisonment, which is a difficult message to teach children. But an elderly man walked up during the message and listened intently, and when the verse was read that the presence of the Lord was with Joseph in his cell, this man decided that he wanted the presence of the Lord in his life, and he gave his heart to Jesus.

For Joseph, his suffering certainly seemed unjustified; in Genesis 50:20 Joseph acknowledges how God turned his troubles into good, but that was in reference to his brothers selling him into slavery, not his wrongful imprisonment. Joseph never got to see that a man in Nicaragua would experience salvation because of his testimony in jail.

If you are enduring some hardship, stay strong; one day you just might meet someone in heaven who came to Christ because of your testimony.

But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

Genesis 39:21

Meeting Royalty

Most people are familiar with the life of Joseph, but if you aren’t, you can read about him in Genesis 37-50.

In chapter 41 Joseph is about to be released from prison, where he had been held for a crime he didn’t commit. Not only is he being let out, but he is going to meet pharaoh, who was the equivalent of the president in Egypt. In verse 41 we see that Joseph “shaved himself and changed his clothes” before he met pharaoh.

If you were going to meet the President of the United States (like the Florida Gators National Championship track and field team did last week), would you make some changes to your appearance? Regardless of your political views, meeting any president is an honor; I know if I were going to meet the president today I would take a shower, put on my nicest clothes, brush my hair, and put on cologne.

Most of us will never meet the president, though. However, every one of us will meet Jesus Christ. The author of Hebrews tells us that we each have an appointment with death, and then our judgment. If you knew that today you were going to stand before Jesus, would you make some changes?

Would you delete music from your iPod? Would you erase text messages or change your ring tone? Would you first break off a relationship, or clean up your language? Would you forgive someone, or ask someone to forgive you? What changes would you make if you were going to see Jesus today?

We probably aren’t going to stand before Jesus today, but we might. Are you willing to gamble eternity on a probably? Since we will all meet Jesus someday, why not make those changes today?