I am currently making some chutney. While it cooks I have done the readings etc for church and I was just asking God what to write on my blog this week, when I got a whiff of strong vinegar in my nose and it made me think of all the things we put into chutney that makes such a wonderful flavour when matured.
This made me think of all the things we experience in our lives and how that makes us into the people we grow into.
Chutney has a lot of vinegar in which is strong smelling and tasting, which on it's own is not very palatable, yet when we add it to other foods and let it mature, it makes them taste good. I compared it in my mind to the problems we have in our lives. I looked up Joseph, who had been thrown into a pit and left for dead by his jealous brothers, saved from the pit but taken into captivity and sold as a slave, thrown into jail by his owners wife who lied when he refused to sleep with her, and spent several years there - no doubt wondering what was going to happen next!
Yet God bought him out of that and used all that had been meant to his harm, for his good. And not only his good but the good of all those around him, including his brothers!
God does not do things to harm us, but He will take the things the devil and others do to try and harm us, and make it work for us. I imagine that as Joseph was going through these difficult times in his life, he wondered where God was at times, but because He stayed faithful, God helped him to think things through and mature into a spiritually stronger person, who was better equiped to deal with what was coming.
Joseph recognised God's work in his life and couldn't continue to feel angry towards those who hurt him, because he knew he would not be in the position to help so many people, without first going through those difficulties. (Genesis 50:19-21). Without God he was more likely to become a bitter, angry man who would have been useless in the role God had planned for him.
I wondered then, What has God got planned for my life - or yours? Will we choose to use it for good or will we get bitter and angry? Will we recognize His work when we see it? Hopefully we will, but even if not, if we stay faithful, God loves us anyway. How good is our God. He truly is our Heavenly Father! A good Father is there helping his children through all the pitfalls of life and stands by his child to the end.
This is how I see my God.
Look for yourself and find your Heavenly Father.