Blessed in the Middle of Life's Mess

Have you ever found yourself in the middle of a bad situation where most of what was happening was not your fault?

You and I know that most of what happens to us is of our own design. We cannot make a car payment because we spent too much on vacation. We have a disobedient child because we refuse to follow any proper parenting guidelines. We have trouble with our boss at work because we refuse to walk in grace and submission. We have a fight with our spouse (or children) and make a conscious decision to stand on some crazy principle that just makes things worse. I am not talking about those kinds of situations.

I am thinking more about the situation where you are promised a specific thing 5B4from someone for 7-years of service and then when your time is up they trick you into taking something else. Yet, you still want that other item because it is beautiful and you love it. So the owner of that item agrees to give it to you if you work another 7-years.

It would be like being a business partner who is promised a huge bonus and a share in the company after 7-years. When the seven years are over you are tricked and offered a manager's position with an option to work another 7-years for what was already promised after the first 7-years.

We would sue them. We would be furious. We would leave the company. There is no way we could be blessed in this type of situation.

Sheer trickery!

It is the story of Jacob. It is the Jacob who loved Rachel but was tricked, after 7-years, into marrying her sister Leah. It is the Jacob who then agreed to work another 7-years for his father-in-law Laban so that he could marry Rachel (read Genesis 29-30).

And it never says that Jacob was angry. Jacob did not leave the country to go back home and he was abundantly blessed in a bad situation not of his making.

In the middle of these circumstances, however, Jacob was extremely blessed. Jacob was the father of 12-sons and a daughter. He was greatly successful in his business endeavors. In fact, so successful that he became wealthier than Laban for whom he worked.

In the middle of a bad situation God 5B4continues to bless us. It is simply who He is. The painful situation that Jacob was in developed in him strength of character that he did not have before.

Do you remember that Jacob tricked his father Isaac into giving him the family blessing instead of his older brother Esau? Back at home Jacob had a brother who hated him. Esau vowed to revenge Jacob's deceitful act but during Jacob's time in the desert God softened the heart of Esau so that when they were reunited there was peace instead of war.

God does not need the palace to prosper us. God does not need us to be in a good situation to bless us. God is not dependent upon the perfect set of circumstances to work His will in our lives.

Joseph was blessed and rose to the top of the empire while still an Egyptian captive never to be free again. Daniel was in the same situationa foreigner who depended upon God and found great favor in the eyes of his captors which led to incredible access to kings and personal success.

Jesus, the Savior of our souls, was born into a people ruled by Romans and into an area occupied by an enemy army. Even in the midst of uncontrollable circumstances God can use us, bless us, and give us a life of peace.

You can bet on it.

Mark Twain