Keeping it Real: The Posture of The Heart

BY DEBBIE LANIER

If you want to rile someone up these days, start talking about injustice. It’s the buzzword of our time. Truly! If you want to sway emotions toward your cause, simply describe it in the context of a wrong perpetrated and its absolute unfairness.

While some have experienced graver levels of injustice than others, every breathing human knows what it’s like to be wronged. All of us carry reasons to harbor pain and lug around residual bitterness.

We can glean so much wisdom from this Old Testament dude named Joseph. Talk about injustice! This guy kept doing right but got sucker-punched at every turn.

Joseph’s own brothers threw him in a pit, then secretly peddled him off to slave traders. Next, his taskmaster’s wife lied through her teeth about Joseph when she didn’t get her way. This injustice landed him in prison. Even in that dingy dungeon, he helped a guy out, only to be snubbed again.

This poor fella suffered one injustice after another for seventeen years straight with no perceivable escape from the unfairness. (Read that again! SEVENTEEN YEARS!)

You would assume that Joseph’s anger festered in that prison cell, that this victim of injustice daily rehearsed all the ways of getting back at those who wronged him. (Honesty presses me to admit, I likely would.)

Folks, how we respond to our grievance determines our destiny. The posture of our heart in the midst of our pain decides what comes next! 

After seventeen seemingly endless years of injustice, God moved suddenly on Joseph’s behalf. Without warning, the prisoner was called before the king to do what nobody else could do. (God made sure of it!) In that watershed moment, Joseph shined with such humility and wisdom that the king promoted this prisoner to second-in-command over the nation.

Are we getting this? In moments, God elevated Joseph from rags to riches, from the prison to the palace! And get this: Joseph then ruled over every single person who had wronged him along the way!

(What would you do with that kind of power? I just heard your thoughts.) 

Don’t miss this. If Joseph had grown bitter and built his life upon the conversation of injustice, he would never have stepped into his destiny. The power to destroy others would have destroyed him.

Joseph didn’t perpetually nurse his wounds in the waiting. He made a daily choice to pursue the God of Justice and knew that somehow, some way, God would fight for him and win! AND GOD DID!

Are we ready for the “suddenly” of God? Or have we allowed bitterness to infiltrate our soul and build a high-rise there? If we keep focusing on what we went through, we’ll never break through! Our most important opportunities may come when we least expect them. What we do in the meantime determines our capacity to maximize them.

Joseph’s continuous prayer life kept his focus on the God of Justice rather than the injustices perpetrated against him. Even in the most unjust moments of his living, he kept a Praise in his mouth and great Faith in his heart!

Sure, you were wronged. I get it! But allowing yourself to wallow in victimhood is stifling your capacity to handle the “suddenly” God wants to bring into your story. Floundering in self-pity only sinks you deeper into the pit. It will NEVER bring you out of that wounded place!

So, shake off your fixation on the injustice. Fix your eyes on the God of Justice, the One who fights for you and brings your “suddenly” when you’re ready to handle it! It’s imperative! Your destiny depends upon it!

For comments or prayer, contact Dr. Lanier at HopeCommunityChurch.tv.

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