Have you ever literally wanted to just die... Sounds a little dramatic, but aren't we all. When some rather surprising news hit you, when something unexpected happens to you out of the blue, your lose someone close, you lose your job, money, a friend... You get in a horrific fight with your parents, a close friend, you feel betrayed in some way or another by someone... The list goes on and on regarding situations where we could "lose our cool" or according to 2 Timothy 4:5 "lose our head." The verse says this; "keep your head in all situations"... Easier said then done (somehow that phrase seems to make sense for 2/3 of the Bible's commands). When I think of "keeping your head" or in other words, not flipping out, not losing your mind, nor acting off of feeling & circumstance, but keeping grounded in your heart and mind we deal with the certain situation according to the word. With wisdom, patience, understanding, hope, love, & most difficultly, joy.
Since were in the month of December, which obviously means CHRISTMAS!!!!! Let's talk about Joseph for a second. A man who was indeed righteous. Who desired nothing less than the Lord's will for his life. Who dedicated his life solely to the Lord according to the Word, and last but not least, devoted himself & his soon to be wife to complete & total purity through courting (dating) & through the engagement. Think about this for a second, because its unbelievable how well he handles his feelings when his fiancé comes to him saying "Joseph I'm pregnant!!" How in the world would you feel, how would you respond? It's a fair question. I mean, complete purity. So HE knows that it aint his! Mary can go on & on to tell him about how she didn't sleep with another man, how it was from the Lord (which now a days, I would probably slap someone if that had been their excuse)... I'm sure Josephs mind was racing, not eve fully paying attention to the words coming out of Mary's mouth beyond "I'm pregnant". Listen to this though, what did he do? He didn't want to publicly disgrace her, or make a fool out of her, so without even knowing/believing it was from the Lord, he decided to break off the engagement secretly. FOR HER SAKE! What a mighty fine man, huh? Now, obviously the story goes on, the Lord tells Joseph to marry her, and being the obedient man of God he was, he watched a pregnant woman walk down the aisle, and took her hand in marriage, trusting and hoping that this baby was indeed of the Lord. Long story so, so short, look what happened. The son of God was born, with the help of Joseph. What an unimaginable thing to witness and be apart of. All because Joseph didn't lose his mind, & he abided by scripture.
When it comes to us & our every day situations, I think that Joseph really set the bar on this one. Some of us are going through an extremely tough time, maybe we put ourselves in the situation, maybe we were thrown into it, or just measled our way into it... Either way, praise the Lord because it doesn't matter how we got there. The Word says that He works out EVERY situation for the GOOD of those who love Him. It doesn't say every situation that we got thrown into by other people, or every situation that sin didn't cause you to get there... but EVERY situation. Period. How amazing? For those of us who are in some sort of tough situation, whatever it is. I mean WHATEVER it may be, physically, spiritually, emotionally, huge, small, stand on that verse. Romans 8:28, and understand that just because we may have gotten our own selves there, or we had on control over the situation, it doesn't mean that the Lord won't use that situation for amazing things.
For those of us who were thrown into certain situations, where it wasn't sin that got us there, it is amazing to know that in Genesis 50:20 it says, "What they intended for evil, Lord You intended for good"in other words, no matter what, the Lord has your best interest & will use other peoples hard hearts and harmful ways towards you, for wonderful things. This is a win, win situation. Like most times, we can always lose our minds, regret way too much of what we had said or how we had handled a situation. We could sulk, sit & cry, expecting no good from any situation, or we could stand of 2 Timothy and keep our heads. We can remain sober minded at all times, thinking of the wisest way to deal with each circumstance we may encounter. It's not an easy thing to do, but it's something that we are absolutely capable of doing. The more and more we learn to trust the Lord and realize that no matter what is going on, He has a divine purpose ALWAYS, and no matter what, He is using that certain situation for lovely things, the easier it becomes to stand on the word in tough times.
Like Joseph, we never know what we could be missing. What could be ahead of us, or what gifts and blessings we may miss out on due to our lashing out. I'm sure Joseph wanted badly to say "screw you" to Mary and find someone who in his mind was telling the truth about remaining pure, but he didn't, did he... He remained standing on the word, sober minded and obedient to the Lord, and He surely blessed that. Let's learn to choose joy in every circumstance and trust in the Lord that everything going on, is for a wonderful purpose that He has in mind, because He loves us. We are all capable!
