"And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house."
Acts 7:10
This is a verse talking about how God was with Joseph, even after his brothers sold him as a slave. We read something similar in the first verse of the Book of Mormon, where Nephi tells us that he has both seen "many afflictions" and also been "highly favored of the Lord" (1 Nephi 1:1).
We often want to believe that afflictions and favor are mutually exclusive, and that if God loves us that our lives will go smoothly, but as we read in Hebrews, "whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth" (Hebrews 12:6, also see Proverbs 13:24).
God helps us with our problems, certainly, but he doesn't make our lives challenge-free. :) I think a large part of that is just that we would never learn anything if we had smooth lives all the time. We'd likely just keep doing things the same way--and we need those challenging times to stir us up to action and some of the more important lessons of our lives. For instance, do we learn serious reliance upon the Lord without losing our normal support system at some time or another? Perhaps, but it's harder to learn things that way sometimes, because we have to break ourselves out of our own rut.
Today, let's work to understand that afflictions come to everyone, and that we are not less favored when we suffer. Let's look to God for deliverance, and for help learning and growing from the things that we go through.
Acts 7:10
This is a verse talking about how God was with Joseph, even after his brothers sold him as a slave. We read something similar in the first verse of the Book of Mormon, where Nephi tells us that he has both seen "many afflictions" and also been "highly favored of the Lord" (1 Nephi 1:1).
We often want to believe that afflictions and favor are mutually exclusive, and that if God loves us that our lives will go smoothly, but as we read in Hebrews, "whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth" (Hebrews 12:6, also see Proverbs 13:24).
God helps us with our problems, certainly, but he doesn't make our lives challenge-free. :) I think a large part of that is just that we would never learn anything if we had smooth lives all the time. We'd likely just keep doing things the same way--and we need those challenging times to stir us up to action and some of the more important lessons of our lives. For instance, do we learn serious reliance upon the Lord without losing our normal support system at some time or another? Perhaps, but it's harder to learn things that way sometimes, because we have to break ourselves out of our own rut.
Today, let's work to understand that afflictions come to everyone, and that we are not less favored when we suffer. Let's look to God for deliverance, and for help learning and growing from the things that we go through.
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