Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Are you suffering in a prison of depression or some other type of affliction?


Copyright,2016  Steve and Robyn Bloem
Image result for joseph in chains
I have, in God's providence, often been disappointed that some longing of mine was not realized. But I have found comfort in the Bible character, Joseph. Joseph had visions (longings) of leadership. He was ready to rule, but God’s purpose was to try him so that he would be a leader with proven character. The Bible tells us in Psalm 105:18 -21, He sent a man before them, Joseph, {who} was sold as a slave. They afflicted his feet with fetters, He himself was laid in irons; The king sent and released him, the ruler of peoples, and set him free.  


He made him lord of his house, ruler over all his possessions.

He (God) sent Joseph to Egypt before Israel was a nation and Joseph led them in the pre-bondage era. However, Joseph had to first be sold into slavery by jealous brothers and later found himself in iron shackles, imprisoned on a trumped up charge of rape,which  the result of a scorned woman. Joseph’s dreams faded as he lay in the dark dungeon. 

Although he had the fresh vision of power in his youth, he needed the iron of affliction to enter his soul.      He found himself running the opposite direction of his prophetic dream, the promise of God. This vision of  leadership had been revealed in an early dream that he shared with his brothers, his father and mother.
 

The fulfillment  of the prophecy  occurred in  the moment that Joseph went from the dungeon to the throne of Egypt. God made him lord and ruler over Pharaoh’s house and possessions. He became a happily married man and he memorialized his sufferings by naming his two sons, Manasseh, God has made me forget all my trouble and my father’s entire household  and Ephraim, God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.

His neck was put in irons. (Psalm 105:18).
The irons of sorrow and loss, the burdens carried as youth, and the soul's struggle agains sin all contribute to developing an iron tenacity and strength of purpose, as well as endurance and fortitude. And these traits make up the indispensable foundation and framework of noble character.
Never run from suffering, but bear it silently, patiently and submissively, with the assurance that it is God's way of instilling iron into your spiritual life. The world is looking for iron leaders, iron armies,iron tendons and muscles of steel. But God is looking for iron saints, and since there is no way to impart iron into His peoples's moral nature except by letting them suffer. He allows them to suffer...
Your iron crown of suffering precedes your golden crown of glory, and iron is entering your sould to make it strong and brave. F.B. Meyer, Streams in the Desert, Mrs. Charles Cowman, December 27.
Notes for Bible Students from the Treasury of David by Charles Spurgeon
  http://biblehub.com/commentaries/tod/psalms/105.htm

If you would like to read our personal,biblical and technical treatment of depression and healing.http://heartfeltmin.org/resources.html



No comments:

Post a Comment

Please feel free to respond to my blog. I value your opinion.