Ever have that problem in your life, that circumstances surrounding you just weighs on you. You know you need to deal with it but you just don’t know where to start. You are facing a dilemma. And it is nagging you. Gnawing on your every thought. You go to bed and you are thinking about it. You wake up and there is just something that is pulling on you and you remember “oh yeah my dilemma.” It didn’t go away with the night. The situation you are facing is on your mind 24/7. It troubles your heart. It perplexes your thoughts. It distresses your emotions. This dilemma you are in just won’t go away.
That is where we find Joseph today. He has got a big problem. He loves this young woman. I call her a young girl. Historians estimate her age to be around 14. But she has found herself in the family way. He knew it couldn’t be his. A man would know this. She claims the Holy Spirit of God has overshadowed her and the babe growing inside of her is the Son of God. By law he has the right to take her to the town square and put her on trial and have her declared an adulteress. This is a big big dilemma for Joseph. He still loves her. But he is confused. He doesn’t know if she has been unfaithful. Maybe she is just crazy. But what if she is telling the truth. What to do?
Have you been there? Facing an issue that you see no good answer to? No options seem good?
Matthew 1:18-25 records Joseph’s story for us.
Look at verse 39
“Joseph, her fiancé was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.”
Joseph has a plan people. Not a good plan. Definitely not the plan he wanted. But it was the only plan he could think of that would allow Mary to keep her life and not be publicly disgraced. It was all Joseph could come up with. But not all God could come up with. He had a different plan. God had a best plan. God had a plan that had been in place since the day He created. And the plans of the Lord cannot be changed. He has already weighed all the costs. He knew the cost would be His One and Only Son. He knew the cost would be to allow a human couple, a couple He created, to raise and be parents to His One and Only. God knew the way of the cross all along. But He also knew the Glory beyond the cross. And so God interjected a “but wait” into Joseph’s plans.
Matthew 1:18-25
This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David, “ the angel said, “ do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the; child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:
“Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’
When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.
- is there a dilemma that is looming over you?
- Is there something troubling your thoughts and you just don’t know where to start?
- Are you in a quandary what to do?
When you find your self in that place, your best bet is always start with the Lord. And then do what Joseph did. He obeyed.
God’s best plan was in place from the get go.
God’s best plan for each of us has been in place from the get go also. He has a plan for each of our dilemmas we are facing we just have to do what Joseph did. He allowed God to interrupt his own plans and Joseph obeyed. He did as the angel of the Lord commanded. Again, I got it figured out why Joseph and Mary were chosen. They had the character types the Lord needed to be the parents of Jesus. They had inside of them obedience.
Looking back I have made mistakes when facing dilemmas. I have acted on my own instincts. I have learned that my own instincts, which are not guided by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, take me down a very dark and dangerous path. It was a path laden with regrets.
Haven’t you?
I made the mistakes because I felt my plan was better than God’s plan.
But I have also faced dilemmas and have chosen God’s plan. And I have found the peace that comes with that plan.
That is the path of all our walks with the Lord. We choose His plan. We don’t choose His plan. In the end where we end up is reaping the consequences of our mistakes and reaping the blessing of our obedience and allowing God’s grace to fill up all our mess ups.
Waiting, the hardest part of obedience. It’s the time God molds and mends.
“I wait for the Lord,my soul waits, and in his word I hope, my soul waits for the Lord more than watchman for the morning.” Psalms 130:5
Here is great quote from Charles Sturgeon
“Stand still” – keep the posture of an upright man, ready for action, expecting further orders, cheerfully and patiently awaiting the directing voice; and it will not be long ere God shall say to you, as distinctly as Moses said it to the people of Israel, “Go forward.”
If the Lord Jehovah makes us wait, let us do so with our whole hearts; for blessed are all they that wait for Him. He is worth waiting for. The waiting itself is beneficial to us: it tries faith, exercises patience, trains submission, and endears the blessing when it comes. The Lord’s people have always been a waiting people- Charles Spurgeon
Those who do not hope cannot wait; but if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.