THE HELP THAT COMES FROM GOD IN OUR LIVES

K. Walker

Genesis 45: 5; 48: 15; Acts 26: 22 (to “day”)

I have been thinking a little recently about our lives, and how every detail of our lives does not happen by chance. If we look back on our lives we can see that nothing happened by chance; God was in them. I have read firstly about two men in Genesis who looked back on their lives. They had come through difficult circumstances in their lives, family pressures and difficulties, but they were able to look back and say that it really was for good. Joseph said to his brothers, “God sent me before you to preserve life”. He accepted God was in the matter, and Jacob also as we read in chapter 48 says, “the God that shepherded me all my life long to this day”. He looked back upon the circumstances and accepted that God had helped him. I have been affected during the last few days when we have had a number of letters read from brothers who are ill, who are maybe near the end of their lives, or are going through pressure, going through exercises, going through difficulties in their lives. They have written to us in this locality, and they have conveyed a sense of having peace in their souls in the acceptance of the exercises that God is putting them through. They could blame other people for these exercises, or ask, Why am I being put through these things? as men in the world would do.

But these brothers and others have said it is because God is in the matter. I feel exercised by that, dear brethren. As thinking about it, especially the letters read last night at the prayer meeting, my thoughts turned firstly to Joseph. Think of how badly his brothers had treated him, how they took him and cast him into a pit and then sold him on.

Then he was given a place of privilege in Egypt; but before that he was put into the dungeon and suffered much. You think of him in these circumstances and all the difficulties he went through, but then what he came to when he met his brothers again. He said to them, “God sent me before you to preserve life”. He did not put any blame upon them at all. He looked upon it that God had been over the matter for good. I trust that we can all look back on our lives in this way, no matter what difficulties may have come in. There are employment issues, health issues, family issues, there are pressures and problems that come into our lives, but I feel that we should be able to look back and say that God was in the matter. We may have our own wills, but dear brethren, let us accept things as being God’s will.

So Jacob in Genesis 48 looks back and takes account of his life as being in view of him learning God. We often quote the scripture, “in pressure thou hast enlarged me” (Psalm 4: 1), and how in the pressure enlargement of the knowledge of divine Persons has proceeded. We may not sometimes see it at the time but we can look back on exercises in our lives and say that our knowledge of God was increased through the discipline. We have known those who have gone through employment problems, those who have gone through and are going through health problems, but as a believer has faith in God, he can trust that God is in the matter. I can go through it with confidence that God is there to preserve me. So Jacob looked back and said, “the God that shepherded me all my life long to this day”. You think of Jacob and what he could say, as he looked back on his life and of all the issues that came in. He had his wages changed a number of times, and you think of the way that Joseph was taken from him and the anguish he went through, but he says, “the God that shepherded me all my life long”. Think of the shepherd care that was able to help him and feed him and look after him in the circumstances. I feel tested as I say these things. Can I say that? Can you say that? Can I say that God shepherded me all my life long to this day? Can we say that at this precise time?

So I thought of Paul in Acts 26 and of the way he was treated in these last few chapters, then he says, “Having therefore met with the help which is from God, I have stood firm unto this day”. He was given what was needed for the moment. Much opposition came in in the previous chapters, but he is met with the help from God and stood firm. May we be encouraged by these things. We know the difficulties, we know the exercises, we know the pressures, and maybe we do not understand why they happen, but may we be encouraged to turn to God, and go forward in faith so that no matter what comes into our lives we realise that it is from God. I feel so exercised in saying these things and I would like to understand them more, but I have been affected by these letters from brothers who are ailing and are going through pressure. It says in Hebrews, “no chastening at the time seems to be matter of joy, but of grief; but afterwards yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those exercised by it”, Hebrews 12: 11. As discipline and exercises are brought in, God has in mind our being enlarged in our hearts towards Him, and fruit being produced for Him.

May we be encouraged in these things, to look back and see that God has been in every detail of our lives. We can look back to that blessed time when the Lord Jesus came into our hearts and we accepted Him as our Saviour. What a blessed thing that is, that God has touched our lives; He has caused us to respond to the gospel, to respond to the presentation of Christ as Saviour, and to come to an appreciation of that blessed One. How good it is to look back and say God was in that matter. But what has happened after that? We move on in the journey of life, the path is not always easy, circumstances change but, dear brethren, let us realise it is for good. It is for our enlargement and increase in our knowledge of God. May we be encouraged to seek out God in our circumstances, and be preserved and strengthened to stand firm from this day forward. May we be encouraged with these thoughts, for His name’s sake.

Word in meeting for ministry, Dundee
19 December 2006