Instrument of healing!
Verse for Today: Saturday, March 02, 2013
Genesis 40:07 – “Why are your faces so sad today?”
There is a growing indifference among people about the difficulties of others. Often we keep away from others’ problems because we think we have enough of our own to handle. But our problems are often windows through which we become aware of others’ problems and to help them to handle theirs. Joseph has always been concerned about others. At seventeen, he was willing to go after his brothers to inquire about their welfare. In the prison he was not only a servant of the prisoners, but a concerned counselor. When he saw their dejected and sad faces, he inquired about it out of concern. He could have ignored it because he had his own hurt due to unlawful imprisonment. But he ignored his situation for a moment and expressed his concern about others. His father Jacob was a destitute, but he was keen to help to get water for the sheep at the well where he met Rachel. We see this attitude of concern in Joseph when he dealt with his brothers before and after they settled in Egypt. Moses as a runaway youth had concern for the helpless shepherdess girls. While in prison, Paul was more concerned about the sufferings of others than his own. The Lord Jesus demonstrated this concern while on the cross and welcomed a dying soul to heaven. Today we are placed in a brutal world with the ministry of concern for others. Joseph challenges us to forget for a moment about our own pain, misery and persecution, and help, support and strengthen those who are going through battles in life. God will use such initiatives to forget our own problems. He wants us to serve others with the grace He has given us. It might be possible that such responses will help us also with our own conditions.
Dear friend, have you been dumped by your situations and circumstances into the dark dungeons of life? Perhaps you are sunk deep in self-pity and feel griped because of the unfair treatment thrust upon you. But if you want true joy and deliverance from the predicament that you are in, focus your attention on others who are suffering. If you share the power of God to work in the difficult circumstances of other lives, you will find divine joy filling your life. When we look at others through the eyes of Jesus as He looked at the thief on the cross, we will be able to recognize and minster unto the dejected, depressed and battered lives. If you share the grace of God in your life with them, they will taste grace in their hearts. Perhaps they might forget what you have done for them, but you are being used as an instrument of God in their lives. Only those who know the Great Physician can take sick people to Him for healing, peace and comfort. Perhaps there are those who want to talk to someone about their burdens, but do not know if we would listen. So let us today forget our own pain and depravity and become sensitive to the needs of others. Every person we meet leaves us with an opportunity to minister unto. Every opportunity we get to see a sad face is God’s message for us to touch that life with the healing and soothing hand of Jesus. Every hurt in this world needs the Balm of Gilead, our Lord Jesus, who is the panacea for all the ills of humanity. When we pour out the Living Water, it will lead others to quench their thirst, cool their burning emotions and settle the turmoil in their lives. Let us today act as salt to heal the emotional sickness of those who come our way. Let us melt away so that other lives will become enriched with Jesus.
2 Corinthians 6:10 – Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything. (NLT)
Thought for Today
Alleviating the pain of others make us forget our own miseries.
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