I was contacted by a man who had lost his business, home, wife, and children during a seven-year span. As if that were not enough heartache, he now found himself unemployed and homeless. He told me that the devil wanted him to kill himself, but he knew that the devil was a liar. Instead of suicide, he made the choice to trust Jesus, having faith that Jesus would bring him through it all.
So many precious people are in similar situations. Hopelessness abounds in our day, and can strike any of us at any time; none of us know what tomorrow will bring.
Allow me to draw your attention to something that Christ-follower Stephen said right before he was violently murdered by a group of religionists who thought they were doing God a favor. Stephen told them: “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. At this time Moses was born”… (Acts 7:17-20 ESV).
Stephen mentions Joseph. God raised Joseph up out of a seemingly hopeless situation. His brothers were jealous of him, selling him into slavery, staging his death, and reporting back to their father the lie that Joseph was killed. Later in life, still separated from his family by this lie, Joseph would be falsely accused and imprisoned for something he did not do. God was always working in Joseph's life, and in God's timing, Joseph was freed from prison and lifted up to a high position in government where he was reunited with his father and brothers, saving their lives from certain starvation. Joseph's leadership in the government preserved two entire nations, Egypt and Israel, delivering people from sure death and destruction due to years of famine.
Next, Stephen reminds the religious death squad he is facing of an important piece of their history that was four-hundred years after Joseph's life—the birth of Moses. This Egyptian king did not know Joseph, and he mistreated the ancestors of both Stephen and his persecutors, enslaving them, beating them, and starving them, while using them to build comfortable cities and palaces for him and his race.
Stephen tells his executioners, "At this time Moses was born." Allow the Holy Spirit to quicken those words to your heart. God was not caught off guard and without a plan to bring his people through their seemingly hopeless situation. It may not have been quick enough for them, but it was right in time. In God's timing another deliverer, like Joseph, was born—Moses.
Moses would go on to face his own seemingly impossible situations, including being exiled to bare existence on the backside of a desert for forty years tending sheep, but in God's time, he was raised up to deliver millions of people from the bondage of slavery. God was working all along.
Beloved, please know that God is always working in your life. He is at work in the midst of seemingly hopeless situations. When you cannot see a way out, God is preparing a way out. You don't have to see it—simply trust him.
Listen to me now, for Stephen's ancestors, God gave Joseph and Moses as delivers. For us, God has given Jesus. Place your trust in Jesus, fixing your eyes on him, following him. He will get you through every hopeless situation. There may be a dry patch along the way or even a dusty-hot desert, and you may get tired and thirsty, but you can always count on Jesus to get you through. He is working on your behalf. He is never late. He is always right on time.
My wife, Becky, and I founded LovingGodFellowship.org in 2005. Each day, its ministries are touching hundreds of thousands of people around the world, sharing the love of Jesus, reaching the world for his glory. Many are in seemingly impossible situations, but God is working in their lives.
Know that you are loved,
gaj
