God, I really really want to be all that YOU desire for me to be in order to glorify YOU! Show me how to see YOUR glory and YOUR plans. It's so easy for me to seek my glory and try to make my own plans. But, everything is all about you and for you. Even when I don't see that, because I am distracted by my own selfishness. Show my how to live in the truth of who YOU are. Holy Spirit convict me when pride and selfishness blind me from loving God and loving others. My life is YOUR life. I would NOT be where I am today, without YOU. Without YOU God, I am nothing. But with YOU, I have life and purpose. Show me that! Help me to be willing to be broken again and again in order to be made into whatever you will for me.
Gen 38
The story of Tamar. I was talking to a good friend last night. Both of us were discussing how to overcome adversity. God allows His children to go through things, sometimes horrible, that they have no control over. We were both talking about our childhoods. I am often ashamed to admit where I came from, and the choices I have made in my past. I wish so much that I had come from a Godly, upright home. But I did not. She did not. She encouraged me again to see how God uses those very circumstances to glorify Himself. The things I would like to hide from others, I should be sharing with them to give the Glory to God. God does allow children to be born into circumstances that are not what we would choose for children. BUT, I have seen how He has healed me. I realize that everything I am is all HIM. I would not have known the way. He showed it to me.
Tamar is given in marriage to Judah's firstborn son. But, this son was wicked in God's eyes, so God allowed Him to die. Tamar is now given to the next son. He is to fulfill an offspring for his brother, but does not do it. What he did was wicked in God's eyes, so he allowed the second son to die. So, Tamar is sent back to her father's household until the third son grew up. But when he does, she is not given to him. She disguises herself as a prostitute, and Judah sleeps with her and she conceives. She bares twins. Perez, the firstborn, is an ancestor of Christ. God used the sins of many and turned them into a plan. Children born into sinful situations, and God uses it.
Ch. 39-40
Joseph is now in Egypt and a servant for Potiphar, one of Pharoh's officials. God prospers Joseph and everything he does; so much that Potiphar entrusts everything in the household into Josheph's care. Potiphar's wife wants Joseph to sleep with her, but he refuses. She continues to tempt him, and when she sees that he will not sleep with her, she lies and states that he made advances towards her. Joseph is thrown into prison. God is with Joseph in prison. Again, unfair situations that God is allowing for a greater purpose.
What have I learned today? God can use anyone, anytime, from any family, for His purpose. He allows those He uses to go through suffering. Suffering through a sinful situation does not disqualify a person, from being used of God. Actually, it seems like God allows this to happen a lot. Why? Maybe because suffering makes us realize that we don't get ourselves anywhere. Only God does this.
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