Watch Your Attitude When Things Go Wrong
Watch Your Attitude When Things Go Wrong
Lately, I began to study the life of Joseph all over again in Genesis, where fourteen chapters alone talk about Joseph. What I found out is that throughout the period Joseph was going through some difficulties, right from home where he was so hated by his siblings because of his dreams, to the bush where the brothers conspired to kill him but eventually sold him to the Ishmaelites, and now in prison in Egypt for no fault of his. All these troubles are enough to make Joseph complains, So, in going through the difficult process of life, Joseph may have reasoned: So, God has brought me this far only to abandon me to my fate.’
When God’s Silence Doesn’t Mean He’s Not With You
Joseph would have thought that God brought him that far to suffer, “After all, I am serving God, I pay my tithe, I give offering…” But if you study the entire chapters on Joseph, he never complained, he never murmured, he never regretted his life. However, when it came to the point when God wanted to do something new by manifesting the blessings on Joseph, the scripture showed up. It says, ”And the Lord was with Joseph…” This means when Joseph was going through the challenges, God was with him but He never told him: “I am with you!”
But the moment the Bible wants to tell us the next promotion that Joseph experienced, as a result of what he has gone through, it will say, “And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous person in the house of his master, and that the master made him the head of the family and of all his businesses.” And the next thing was that Potiphar’s wife became envious of Joseph, tried to sleep with him and Joseph refused. She took his garment as evidence to lie against Joseph.
In life, your enemy may have the evidence but he’s not correct. She said, “This is the evidence, he tried to rape me and I screamed,” Potiphar’s wife lied against him. Even at this, you notice that God became silent. The trial was manipulated to send Joseph into prison. Yet, in all that, Joseph kept quiet. At this moment, even God didn’t say He was with Joseph.
But the scripture again came through for Joseph when it says that even in the prison, Joseph found favour in the eyes of the keepers of the prison. And this alone is a true evidence of God’s presence in a man’s life.
What Attitude Do You Put On When Things Go Wrong?
What attitude do you put on when things go wrong? God will check your attitude in life whenever things seem to go wrong. What do you say with your mouth when things go wrong? How do you behave? What’s your attitude towards God and the church? Do you still go to church? How do you respond to God when things go wrong? What do you do with your Bible? What do you do with God in prayers? How do you react to things in the morning, afternoon and night? In all that Joseph went through, he kept quiet. Yet the scripture will say, “And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man” even in the prison.
In whatever you’re going, anytime God shows up, there’s a miracle but before then, you will have paid the price of endurance, of patience, of silence. I’ve learnt in life that silence is not golden, it’s more than diamond. Sometimes when you talk and shout, and people clap for you, it could just be a confirmation of your foolishness, it may not mean you did well.
When things don’t go well, don’t complain and give up, be quiet and watch out for what God will do next. It is in the midst of crisis that God sometimes raises men. Joseph wouldn’t have been known as the preserver of the Jews if there was no famine in the land. In Genesis 26, if there was no famine, Isaac would not have been told by God not to go abroad but sow in that same land where there was famine, and harvested a hundred fold.
What do you do when things don’t go well? You pray! And prayer is communication with God. It is talking to God and receiving a response from God. When you pray, wait for an answer; when you pray, wait for a direction. In praying to God, you don’t pray and at the same time decide what you want to do. Many people pray but as they are praying, they know what they want to do already; that is deception. In prayers, you are empty before God, in prayers, you tell God I don’t know what to do, what next should I do? In prayers, you are seeking direction, you are seeking help. In prayers, you don’t come to God as if you already know the answer.
In prayers, you don’t just talk to God like you’re talking to a statue. You talk to him and then you wait patiently for answers. God will give a response in His time, it could be that day, it could be the next day but have faith that you have prayed, believe God you have prayed and he has answered you and he has taken care of the situation. So, what do you do next? Live your life without worries because you have committed the matter into the hand of the Almighty God. Ephesians 3:20 says God will “do more than we ask or think according to the power that’s in us.” What is the power? The power of faith, the power of trust, the power of confidence we have in God to whom you have prayed.
So you believe him and then you’ll suddenly find out that the prayers you have prayed, God is giving you an answer, which may come to you in a dream, in a vision, in a revelation, or like a prophetic word to confirm the answer.
John 15:16 says: “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”
There is a relationship here between fruit-bearing and answer to your prayers. Your responsibility here is to bear fruit. Understand that you are saved because He chose you, you are in church because He wants you there. You could have chosen to stay at home and watch television, many heard the same sermon you heard the day you became born again, but they didn’t become born again. Many have followed you to church, they came once, but they didn’t come again. This is why God says, “I chose you and ordained you, and that you should bring forth fruits, not only that you should bring forth fruits, but that your fruit should remain. It means your fruit should stand, there shall be no devourer, no enemy should reduce your fruits. Why? I chose you and if I chose you, I will protect you, if I give it to you, I will protect it. Zephaniah 3:17)says: “The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.”
What does it mean, the Lord who is with you he’s mighty, he will save you from trouble, he will save you from the storms of life but you must rest in his love, relax in his arms, be confident of his love. Do you know what it means that a man that knew no sin he was accused of committing sin he didn’t defend himself, he was reproached, he was disgraced, he was embarrassed, he was rebuked, they spat on him, how do you think a man who paid such a price will see you whom he bought with that price being ridiculed by anybody?
Those are things that make me tick in life, you are an expensive commodity, money cannot buy you, it took the blood of the only begotten son of God to pay for your life. Why will God rejoice over you? Why will he sing over you? Because He ordained you to bring forth fruits. Nobody rejoices over a fruitless tree. God wants to rejoice in your fruit-bearing.
Build Personal Relationship With God
Malachi 3:18 says: “Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.”
The time has come when we shall know those that serve God and those that serve him not. How? By their fruits. Fruits-bearing in Christ is a result of your communion life, your prayer life with God. What sustains your relationship with God is not saying that ‘I’m a Christian’ but you have no personal relationship with Him. You build relationship with God in prayers. Fruits are produced by your prayers. Prayer is like a fertilizer that you apply to the seed you have planted. Prayers give increase, prayers give success, prayers stop the devourer, and prayers stop the enemy from intruding and interfering with your life and destiny.
There are people who do not sleep, but working against your success day and night. Ask your parents, and they will tell you that there are people who go to various occult places that’s why you must understand that having a talent to do anything is not enough, let your talent be backed up by serious prayer, let your skill be backed up by serious prayer, I have a very big God he is always by my side, how? By prayer, how will you activate God around your life, by prayers and worship.
