Joyful Living

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” James 1:2-3 (NIV)

“Joseph was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives. And he brought their father a bad report about them.” Genesis 37:16-17 (NIV)

“But Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he had been born to him in his old age. And he made a richly ornamented robe for him.” Genesis 37:3 (NIV)

“Now Joseph was well built and a handsome man.”Genesis 39:6 (NIV)

“When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.” Genesis 37:4 (NIV)

“Listen to this dream I’ve had. We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it…Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us? And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Genesis 3: 7:78(NIV)  

“‘Listen,’ he said, ‘I had another dream. And this time, the sun and the moon and stars were bowing down to me.’ When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, ‘What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come down and bow down to the ground before you?”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Genesis 37:9-11 (NIV)

“The Lord was with Joseph…and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.” Genesis 39:2 (NIV)

“But while Joseph was there in prison, the Lord was with him.” Genesis 39:2(NIV)

“Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done…the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:19-20 (NIV)

When the Lord Is With Me…

1. He works all things for my good.

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ” Romans 8:28 (NASB)

2. He draws me closer through hard times.

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me… For when I am weak, then I am strong. “2 Cor. 12:9-10 (NIV)

3. He uses suffering to remind me this isn’t home.

“For we know that even the things of nature, like animals and plants, suffer in sickness and death as they await this great event… We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us—bodies that will never be sick again and will never die. ”         Romans 8:22-23 (LB)

“Our Lord, come now! We are waiting for you!” 1 Cor. 16:22 (EEB)

4. He comforts me so I can comfort others.

“He always comes alongside us to comfort us in every suffering so that we can come alongside those who are in any painful trial.” 2 Corinthians 1:4 (TPT)

Genesis 42:24; 43:30; 45:2, 14; 46:29; 50:1