A Fruitful BoughSpeaker: Dr. D.G.S. Dhinakaran Gist: Forsaken by everyone, are you shedding bitter tears? Jesus knows your pains. It is only to make you a fruitful bough that He takes you through these travails. Commit your life entirely at His feet. In the book of Genesis, we read about a righteous man called Joseph. His brothers forsook him. They threw him into a pit. Later, they sold him as a slave for twenty pieces of silver. But God did not forsake him. Though he was taken to Egypt as a slave, God raised him to become the Prime Minister of Egypt.
When we read Psalm 105:16-22, we see that God knew beforehand that Egypt would have to suffer a famine and Jacob's family should not suffer due to this famine. Joseph was pre-ordained by the Lord to feed everyone in Jacob's family (Genesis 45:7). That is why Joseph testified later, when he met his brothers, "But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20).
There was a severe famine in Russia. Immediately, its Prime Minister at that time, Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev, began procuring food grains from several countries. Why was this compassion seen in him? The answer is found from his life. When Gorbachev was a little boy, his father served in the army. The boy was not sent to school because his mother was unable to buy a pair of shoes for him. Gorbachev's father who heard of this wrote to his wife, "Sell anything at home to buy shoes for my son. Send him to school somehow." The boy went to school putting on a new pair of shoes. But the headmaster told him, "You have come to school several months after the re-opening. You cannot cope with the lesson taught already. You better go home." The boy then pleaded, "Sir, I will make up for the days lost. Please don't send me back home." Such was the affliction that he underwent in his childhood. He had not forgotten those days of affliction even when he became Prime Minister. So, God used him as a fruit-yielding bough for Russia.
Dear friend, have your kith and kin forsaken you? Look up to Jesus. Pointing to His disciples, Jesus once claimed their relationship and said that they were His "brothers" (Matthew12:46,50). But when the Roman solidiers came to capture Him, the disciples whom He loved so much forsook Him and fled. He knows the pain of being forsaken by others very well. Through such experiences that you might have undergone, the Lord will make you like Joseph of old, to be fruitful in every good work (Colosians 1:10) and to share such good works with others. Let not your heart be troubled.
Prayer:
My Loving Heavenly Father,
I praise You for the promise that even if the world forsakes me You are there for me till the end of the world. In Jesus's name, I pray.
Amen. |