Text: Matthew 1:18-25
God chose Joseph to be the earthly father of Jesus and this meant that his life began to have unexpected adversity. How did he make his life work despite the challenges he faced?
The Bible tells us in the Gospel of Matthew, that Joseph was a righteous man. His actions toward Mary, his fiancée, revealed he was a kind and sensitive man. When Mary told Joseph she was pregnant, he had every right to feel disgraced. He knew the child was not his own, and Mary’s apparent unfaithfulness carried a grave social stigma.
Although Joseph’s initial reaction was to break the engagement, the appropriate thing for a righteous man to do, he treated Mary with extreme kindness. He did not want to cause her further shame, so he decided to act quietly.
Matthew 1:20 says “But as he was thinking this over, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary [as] your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of (from, out of) the Holy Spirit”.
What can we learn here? The number one way that Joseph was able to make his life work was that he didn’t act rashly. Some of us cause things to fall apart because we are too much in a rush. Joseph took time to think and to hear from God.
Rashness is defined as unwise haste; recklessness; a response without due deliberation (prayerfulness and forethought) or caution.
In fact haste is often the devil’s trap to get us moving too quickly and catch us in an unprayerful, unguarded moment.
• Proverbs 14:29 “He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is hasty of spirit exposes and exalts his folly”.
• Proverbs 19:2 “Desire without knowledge is not good, and to be overhasty is to sin and miss the mark”.
Joseph took time to think and hear what God had to say. Think before acting or reacting. Don’t say or do things that you will regret.
Hear both sides of a story before getting involved hastily. You cannot make life work by getting involved in battles that don’t concern you and when you don’t have the full picture. Proverbs 18:13 says “He who answers a matter before he hears the facts—it is folly and shame to him” Ecclesiastes 5:2 says Be not rash with your mouth, and let not your heart be hasty to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven, and you are on earth; therefore let your words be few.
Don’t panic or act rashly when under stress. Have faith and patience, and trust the Lord. Ecclesiastes 7:8 says Better is the end of a thing than the beginning of it, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit
Joseph took his time and he heard from God. God sent an angel to Joseph to verify Mary’s story and reassure him that his marriage to her was God’s will. Joseph willingly obeyed God as soon as he woke up from his dream, in spite of the public humiliation he would face. The number two way that Joseph made his life work was to be obedient to God’s instructions. Perhaps this noble quality of obedience made him God’s choice for the Messiah’s earthly father. Making life work then requires you to act, not in haste now but after you have got an instruction from God, you need to act on it.
Making life work requires self-restraint and discipline. This was the third way that Joseph made his life work. Matthew 1:25 says “But he [Joseph] had no union with her as her husband until she had borne her firstborn Son; and he called His name Jesus”. He was able to exercise restraint until the appropriate time. You may want to take an action that it is not yet time for you to take. You are like a soldier in training who wants to move to the frontline.
We see again the obedience of Joseph and his ability to hear God in Matthew 2: 13-14 when God warned him about Herod and also in v20-23. Now do you think that life turned out the way Joseph wanted? Would he have chosen to be ridiculed by everyone for marrying someone who was already pregnant or would he have chosen having to pack up his life and flee from Herod? I am sure he wouldn’t have pictured that as being his life. But the Bible doesn’t record his complaints, it records his obedience. The book of Genesis clearly presents us with the concept of man being created by God. If we are created then there are limits to our autonomy in other words a creation is never created to please itself but to plese it’s creator. If we are created then our goal in life should not so much be to gain the greatest pleasure or success or even primarily to benefit the human race, but rather to fulfil the will of the creator.
Things will not always go the way you thought they would but we know from Romans 8:28 that all things will work together for those that love God. The forth tool that Joseph used to make his life work was resilience.
Resilience is our ability to adapt and bounce back when things don’t go as planned. Resilient people don’t wallow or dwell on failures; they acknowledge the situation, learn from their mistakes, and then move forward.
According to the research of leading psychologist, Susan Kobasa, there are three elements that are essential to resilience:
1. Challenge – Resilient people view a difficulty as a challenge, not as a paralyzing event. They look at their failures and mistakes as lessons to be learned from, and as opportunities for growth. They don’t view them as a negative reflection on their abilities or self-worth.
2. Commitment – Resilient people are committed to their lives and their goals, and they have a compelling reason to get out of bed in the morning. Commitment isn’t just restricted to their work – they commit to their relationships, their friendships, the causes they care about, and their spiritual life.
3. Personal Control – Resilient people spend their time and energy focusing on situations and events that they have control over. Because they put their efforts where they can have the most impact, they feel empowered and confident. Those who spend time worrying about uncontrollable events can often feel lost, helpless, and powerless to take action.
In summary, we have said that to make life work in the face of adversity as Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus did, we should not be rash or hasty, we should be obedient to God’s instructions, we should have self-restraint and we have to be resilient. I pray that God will strengthen us in these areas and empower us to put them into action in Jesus name.
Andrea Onduku
