honor God

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You Are Not a Victim!

Gen 37:3-4 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.

Gen 37:11 And his brothers were jealous of him,

Victim: a person harmed or injured as a result of a crime or accident

Victim: A person has come to feel helpless and passive in the face of misfortune or ill treatment.

Gen 50:20 "And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.

Gen 41:51 Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. "For," he said, "God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house."

Gen 45:7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors

1. Our lives are about His purposes

Gen 50:20 "And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.

Romans 8:28 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.

2. We are not at the mercy of other people.

Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

3. We like thinking that the problem is other people and circumstances beyond our control because it affords us the excuses we need to justify inactivity and disobedience.

Hebrews 12:5-6 "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives."

Hebrews 12:7-9 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Hebrews 12:9-10 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.

Satan wants us to believe that the difficulties of life are proof that God does not love us!

God does not want us to become pampered babies, He wants us to become mature sons and daughters who can be trusted with the responsibilities of life.

4. Assume that where you are is where God has you and honor God in that season

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,