When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Fudge (eBook)

CHAPTER TWO

“Meanwhile” Genesis 37:18

We learned in chapter one that the word “content” has a definition, “a state of peaceful happiness,” and the word, “learned” in the Greek has a definition, “practice to be in the habit of,” and the summary is this: WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS, MAKE FUDGE! Rise to the occasion because we can overcome through Christ! However, you do not go from lemons to fudge in one step. This chapter will move us from “For I Have Learned” times of our lives into the “Meanwhile” times of life. Remember the trust issue we talked about in chapter one? You could trust God when you had a spouse, you could trust God when you had a job, you could trust God when you had your health, you could trust God when you had money in the bank, you could trust God when you first got married, you could trust God when everything was going well? The “For I Have Learned” times deal with times of trusting God when you are dealing with life’s lemons. But when the “Meanwhile” time comes, and they can last a long time, can you still trust God? “Meanwhile,” when your life is in a battle, others are going on. “Meanwhile,” when your heart is being ripped out of your chest, people are living happily. “Meanwhile,” when your mind is burdened and your world is crumbling, people are eating, drinking, laughing, and living. “Meanwhile,” when it feels like you are dying, the world is going on.

Joseph is about to dwell in the “Meanwhile” time of his life. “They saw him in the distance, and before he had reached them, they plotted to kill him.” I have learned that trouble is, as they say, right around the corner. Joseph’s brothers were devising a plan to get rid of the brother they hated and Genesis 37 verse 20 says, “Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal ate him. Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams!” Then in verses 23 and 24, they put their plan into motion, “When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped off his robe, the robe of many colors that he had on. Then they took him and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.”

Scenario: you are living for God, worshiping, tithing, trusting, praying, reading, a devoted wife, mom, sister, daughter, friend, etc. YOU ARE TRYING YOUR BEST; here comes the “Meanwhile” time, the waiting time, the “God is working even though you don’t see it” time. It sometimes feels like the “Meanwhile” time is an insult to injury. Joseph was a good son, a beloved son, a favored son, and one day his father requested of him to go check on his brothers, the same brothers that despised him, yet Joseph obeyed. “I’m ready” was Joseph’s answer to his father. When God requests something from you, do you say without hesitation as Joseph did, “I’m ready,” and then off you go? Genesis 37:18 says, “They saw him in the distance, and before he had reached them, they plotted to kill him.” Huge lemon. A plan was devised by Joseph’s brothers in verse 20, “Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal ate him. Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams!” Then in verses 23 and 24, the plot was put into motion, “When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped off his robe, the robe of many colors that he had on. Then they took him and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.” Stripped of the beautiful robe of many colors his father made for him (lemon), captured by your flesh and blood (lemon), thrown down into a well (lemon), a pit, that thankfully was dry, and meanwhile, the words “I’m ready” are shouting in your head. WHY DID YOU AGREE TO GO CHECK ON YOUR BROTHERS? You knew your brothers hated you and never spoke a kind word to you. Why did you answer, “I’m ready?”

“Meanwhile,” the brothers your father asked you to go check on, just sat down, and started eating their meal, just went on living, just behaved as if nothing was wrong. They saw an opportunity to get rid of the brother they hated without killing him, per se, by selling him to slave traders they saw coming in the distance. Then that plan led to a more hideous plan as if what they had done wasn’t horrible enough. They devised a scheme to trick their father into believing Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. Have you ever been “sold out?” Big time lemon. The first word in verse 36 is a word that has torn my heart, convicted my spirit, and pierced my soul: “Meanwhile.” “Meanwhile,” the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard. “Meanwhile,” a seventeen-year-old son, the delight of his father, had been betrayed by his brothers and sent away as a slave. But here’s the advantage Joseph took with him when everything else had been ripped from him, verse two of chapter 39 says, “The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master.”

“Meanwhile,” you answer, “I’m ready, God” and get betrayed by those you trusted the most.

“Meanwhile,” you do all you can do, the best you can do, and still, bad stuff happens. In the “Meanwhile” times of life, you get down, you cry, you are in a dry pit, and then Satan begins to wreak havoc with your mind and heart by telling lies such as, “If God loved you, would this happen? If you were doing everything so good, would that happen? You must have sin in your life, or you would not be going through this! And have you noticed so and so? Nothing bad EVER happens to them?” Etc., etc., etc., lemon, lemon, lemon.

“Meanwhile,” it seems others do not have a clue. They come to see you, hug you, dazzle you with their saintly smile, and say nice things about you and your strength to get through the “Meanwhile” but then they leave and you’re still in the dry pit. Don’t get me wrong; showing love and support are great! Letting people know you care is priceless! But when you are in the alone times, the real times, the “life is hitting me hard” times, the “Meanwhile” times of life, those can be the sourest times of life. I want to point out some visible “Meanwhile” times, the ones you can see, hear, and live in: the divorce, the sickness, the financial downfall, the lies, the rejection, the backstabbing, the loneliness, the pain, the “whys,” and the “how longs”—the “Meanwhile, I am hanging on by a shredded thread times.”

Job had his “Meanwhile” times. Job’s children were dead, his servants were dead, his cattle and homes were gone, and yet Job said in Job 19:23–27, “I wish that my words were written down, that they were recorded on a scroll or were inscribed in stone forever by an iron stylus and lead! But I know my living Redeemer, and He will stand on the dust at last. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet I will see God in my flesh. I will see Him myself; my eyes will look at Him, and not as a stranger. My heart longs within me.”

“Meanwhile,” how about Daniel, who was thrown in a den of hungry lions for continuing to pray to God after the king was tricked into making a law forbidding anyone to bow to any God except Nebuchadnezzar? “So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, ‘May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!’ A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den. The king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signet rings of his nobles so that nothing regarding Daniel could be changed. Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. No diversions were brought to him, and he could not sleep. At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. When he reached the den, he cried out in anguish to Daniel. ‘Daniel, servant of the living God,’ the king said, ‘has your God whom you serve continually been able to rescue you from the lions?’ Then Daniel spoke with the king: ‘May the king live forever. My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths. They haven’t hurt me, for I was found innocent before Him. Also, I have not committed a crime against you my king.’ The king was overjoyed and gave orders to take Daniel out of the den. So Daniel was taken out of the den, uninjured, for he trusted in his God” Daniel 6:16–23.

“Meanwhile” there’s Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3:16–27 KJV, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated. And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Therefore because the king’s commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of...