Reasons Not Excuses

How do you keep life from taking you for a ride? The life of Joseph (Genesis 37—45) teaches us various principles and five of those we highlighted on Sunday and we will examine them through this week.

        The first principle is Reasons Not Excuses. Joseph had experienced numerous difficulties in his life from being abused by his brothers to being lied upon and imprisoned by his boss’ wife. Yet in all of these experiences it is clear that Joseph did not let these bad experiences become excuses for him to think that he did not, or could not live for God. Joseph could have easily doubted God’s promises to him when he kept suffering but he chose not to give them that power and to rather trust God. Joseph had numerous reasons for not trusting God, yet he also knew that he had no excuses to not obey God.

        As we look over our lives we are continually challenged by reasons to not trust God. We can probably identify numerous times we were treated wrongly by those who say they know God or that we did not get what we believed God should give us. Yet, please remember that none of these reasons can give us an excuse to not trust and obey God.

        What event in your life are you struggling with today? Please take the time to pray and ask God to give you the right view of Himself for He is always good and will always accomplish His promise to use every event in our lives for good—“ Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good” Romans 8:26—28.

“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”    John 3:17 (KJV)