Walking with God by faith, honouring him always!

By Ron. v. Leerdam

Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,
I want to suggest that sometimes we spend our lives being reactive instead of proactive. We react to the circumstances and situations we face, rather than thinking through what God would have us do and how He would have us respond to
what ever it is we are faced with. In a few words, our thought, our prayer should be,
‘Lord, how can I honour you?’
What is going to give you glory?
The psalmist prayed, “Search my O God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23,24
Each morning may we greet the Lord and make a conscious decision to entrust our future into the Lord’s hands again.
Lord, whatever you ordain for me today is good for me!
Help us to enjoy today with gratitude in our hearts and any pain, sadness or anxiety – just give it to you – Lord help us to walk with you in faith.
My friends, life happens and ultimately we believe that our sovereign Lord is in control – nothing happening by chance or accident, but all things, God works for the good of those who love him. Through the lessons of life God wants to teach us to trust in him at all times and in every circumstance.
To be still and know that he alone is God.
He is the Lord that heals us, binds up our wounds, not treating us as our sins deserve. When our children are naughty sometimes we respond harshly. When we find out that we have lost our job – we react in different ways. Some drop their bundle, some get mad, some say, ‘I didn’t like that job anyway.’
When we are with our peers sometimes our reaction is to follow them in whatever they do. So I ask,

Are you reactive or proactive. How do you feel most of the time?
Manipulated or Able to choose?
Powerless or In control of self?
Oppressed or Free?
Always wanting or Content with what you have?
Fearful/uptight or Confident?
Reactive or Proactive?

The story of Joseph is one which illustrates very powerfully what it means to be proactive. The attitude of Joseph’s brothers illustrates reactivity. We can see very clearly in whom they trusted and the values they adopted to live their lives by.
Joseph feared God and was honest in his relationship with his family: painfully honest. When he had the dreams of his father, mother and brothers bowing before him, he told them. His father rebuked him but kept the matter in mind.
His brothers reacted by hating him!
Their hatred culminated in hatching a plot to kill him.
We know God’s intervention as his brothers decided to profit by selling him to the Midianite merchants. ‘Then we will see what will come of his crazy
dreams – fancy we all bowing down to honour him?’
How did Joseph respond to being sold into slavery?
Was he reactive or proactive?
What were the values that Joseph lived his life by?
He trusted in God.
This trust in God allowed him to be all that God intended.
This is evident in all the recorded situations of Joseph’s life.
Joseph is sold to Potiphar.
He does not whinge and complain, charging God with wrong-doing.
He does not allow his situation to control his life.
Joseph is not a reactionary.
He is proactive, he can afford to be, because he knows that his life is in God’s hands.
He is able to be what God wants Him to be.
He chooses to honor God with his life.
He chooses to live by the values he knows God wants him to live by.
It reminds me of the Apostle Paul’s statement:
“For I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being
content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Phil 4:11-13

The Lord was with Joseph, and he prospered.
Joseph is seen to be trustworthy.
He is seen to be one who lives his life according to the values God has given.
Potiphar sees this so he entrusts Joseph to care for everything he has.
Now, Potiphar’s wife thought that Joseph was a bit of a boy-toy – today’s language.
“He was well-built and handsome.”
She wants to have him in her bed. – a reactionary – operating according to feeling, not values. Joseph lives according to the God’s values refusing to be seduced. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No-one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because
you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”
And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even to be with her.”
Joseph’s righteous refusal put him in jail.
Once again, how does Joseph respond?
Is he reactionary – reacting according to his feelings? Perhaps he felt confused, wondering what God had in mind – jailed for doing the right thing.
But he trusted God.
Little did he know that God had in mind, making him second in charge over all of Egypt. Only later would he look back and be able to say to his brothers,
“Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for
good to accomplish what is now being done, the
saving of many lives.”
God gives Joseph favour in the eyes of the jailer.
He is put into a position of authority.
He interprets the dreams of Pharaoh’s baker and cup-bearer. They come true.
Living by faith in the moment, trusting God for his
sovereign purpose to be achieved is not always easy.
After 730 days of walking one day at a time with God, God orders events so that Joseph ends up being appointed second to Pharaoh over all the land of Egypt.
Time does not allow for us to talk about the details of God’s faithfulness to Joseph – read it to your children and grandchildren so they might know and trust in the Lord with all their heart. Joseph’s brothers do not learn the lesson of being proactive.

How do they react to the death of their father?
“When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?”
So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: `This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.”
When their message came to him, Joseph wept. His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.
But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.
Are we simply to take this as a nice story with the lesson: Be like Joseph?
Is the message, dare to be a Daniel – trust in God and he will save you and make you prosper.
No!
The lesson that God wants you and me to learn is that He is in control of the lives of all His people. God works all things out for good – according to His purpose and pleasure so that the eternal destiny of His people is sure.
It was no accident that Joseph was sold then put in prison.
The things that happen in history are not accidents.

Our Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth not to react to the circumstances and situations He found Himself in.
He was not a pawn in the hands of cruel fate! His life’s mission was to do the will of his heavenly Father.
“The saving of many lives through His sacrifice on the cross.”
So we see that there are parallels in divine history between Joseph and Jesus.
I would like to suggest that your life and my life ought to have similar parallels.
What is God’s will for His Church?
To be an instrument in the hand of God for the saving of many lives.
How are people saved?
As our lives tell the story of the freedom we have received in Christ.
As we live our lives being proactive.
As we trust in God, being content whatever our circumstances and choose to live according to the values God has given.
Believe that God has his purpose for us.
Walk with God in faith!
Welcome the Lord each new day.
‘Good morning Lord!’
What is your purpose for me today?
Believe that somehow you are part of His eternal plan?
We don’t know the details of God’s plan because we cannot see into the future.
What we can do first is trust God.
Live our life according to the values God has given.
God wants us to choose for Him first.
We are called to live by faith in an Almighty God who works all things for good.

But we have the responsibility to choose for God.
Living by faith is being pro active – not reactive.
“By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelite’s from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones. By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be ill-treated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.
He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell
about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.
Women received back their dead, raised to life again.
Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.

They were stoned; they were sawn in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and ill-treated — the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” Hebrews 11:39-40

AMEN.