If you have food enough, clean water, shelter and thus all of life's necessities, Thank God for your blessings. If you are reading this on the internet, thank God for your blessings, because you have more wealth than over half the people on earth. We are blessed, you and I to have so much. But what is all these things for, what purpose?
Consider today's meditation by James Ryle:
September 18
Five Lessons for Dreamers (Part 5)
"Now Joseph had a dream." (Genesis 37:5)
Looking back upon the story of Joseph the dreamer, and seeing how God exalted him in the land of Egypt and blessed him with favor and great success — a pattern emerges, providing us today with guidelines we may follow into our own place of blessing and honor.
Here are five lessons for Dreamers from the life of Joseph:
Lesson #5 — See everything in life from God's perspective (see Genesis 45:7, and 50:20).
After all the years had passed between when the dreams were first given to a young boy, and when a grown man now stood in the midst of the dreams coming true — one thing towers above all others: Joseph had learned to see things from God's perspective.
On two occasions he reassured his brothers of this fact. First he said, "God sent me on ahead of you to keep your families alive and to save you in this wonderful way." (Gen 45:7). What a remarkable view he possessed of the dreadful night when his brothers had beaten him, thrown him in a pit, and then sold him as a slave to an Egyptian caravan. "God sent me on ahead of you...." — that's how he saw it.
And then once more, bringing even greater clarity to his words, Joseph said it best when he spoke thus: "As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive." (Gen 50:20).
Yes, his brothers had done a very evil thing — but Joseph saw how God used it to work things out in so extraordinary a manner as to bring about the salvation of two Nations: Egypt, and Israel.
Learn to see everything in life from God's perspective, my wistful friend, and your dreams will take on epic value.
Have a good night.
How do we do this, by Faith and Hope in God!
Charles Spurgeon's thoughts shows us how to life in a fuller relationship with God!
“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
- Gal_5:25
The two most important things in our holy religion are the life of faith and the walk of faith.
He who shall rightly understand these is not far from being a master in experimental theology, for they are vital points to a Christian. You will never find true faith unattended by true godliness; on the other hand, you will never discover a truly holy life which has not for its root a living faith upon the righteousness of Christ. Woe unto those who seek after the one without the other! There are some who cultivate faith and forget holiness; these may be very high in orthodoxy, but they shall be very deep in condemnation, for they hold the truth in unrighteousness; and there are others who have strained after holiness of life, but have denied the faith, like the Pharisees of old, of whom the Master said, they were “whitewashed sepulchres.”
We must have faith, for this is the foundation; we must have holiness of life, for this is the superstructure. Of what service is the mere foundation of a building to a man in the day of tempest? Can he hide himself therein? He wants a house to cover him, as well as a foundation for that house. Even so we need the superstructure of spiritual life if we would have comfort in the day of doubt. But seek not a holy life without faith, for that would be to erect a house which can afford no permanent shelter, because it has no foundation on a rock. Let faith and life be put together, and, like the two abutments of an arch, they will make our piety enduring. Like light and heat streaming from the same sun, they are alike full of blessing. Like the two pillars of the temple, they are for glory and for beauty. They are two streams from the fountain of grace; two lamps lit with holy fire; two olive trees watered by heavenly care.
O Lord, give us this day life within, and it will reveal itself without to thy glory.
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