THURSDAY 23RD JUNE,2016

TOPIC: YOU WON’T TALK ABOUT IT
TEXT: Genesis 50:20 “But as for you, you meant evil against me,’ but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive…”

Twenty-two years after selling Joseph into slavery, his brothers now stand before him as prime minister of Egypt. They did not recognise him, and he holds their fate in his hands, If you’d been in his shoes, what would you have done? Gotten even? Reminded them of their past offences? For the next few days, let’s look at what Joseph did: He didn’t talk about it, ‘There was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers’ (Genesis 45:1). Joseph made sure no one in Egypt would ever know what they had done to him and isn’t that how God treats us? The fact is He has enough on each of us to bury us, yet He refuses to resurrect our past sins. So why do we do the opposite? To punish! ‘Perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment’ (1 John 4:18).

What are we afraid of? That they’ll get away with it. We want them punished, so we tell everybody what happened and when we do:
1) We play God! God says, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay’ (Romans 12:19). He alone knows the weakness in your offenders that caused them to hurt you, and whether they’ve repented and changed.
2) We set the standard by which we ourselves will be judged. ‘You will be judged in the same way that you judge others ‘ (Matthew 7:2).
If that’s a truth you’re not comfortable with: ‘Get rid of all bitterness…instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, just as God…has forgiven you’. When You’ve been wronged, ‘forgive and forget’ is the right response!

MEDITATION: James 4:11-12

STUDY THE BIBLE
PHIL 2:12-30; EZEK 21&22; ISAIAH 50

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