In an inspirational message to the congregants of Gateway Church, Max Lucado gave the church hope in the middle of the darkness.
“You’ll get through this. It won’t be painless. It won’t be quick. But God will use this mess for good. In the meantime, don’t be foolish of naïve. But don’t despair either. With God’s help, you will get through this,” Lucado told Gateway in a recent message.
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Using the story of Joseph and the despair he went through after being stuck in a pit and sold into slavery by his brothers, Lucado demonstrated how God uses people in the very worst of places and circumstances to turn it all around for good.
God gave Joseph dreams of what his future would be like. He gave him insight and vision into the promise of someday being in the position of a ruler over his brothers, something they despised him for. They hated Joseph and wanted to rid him of their lives, which threw Joseph into a sequence of unprecedented circumstances that he never saw coming.
“Joseph didn’t see this coming, did he?” Lucado asked. “The attack caught him off guard, and so did yours. Joseph’s pit came in the form of cistern. Yours came in the form of a what? A diagnosis? A foster home? Betrayed loyalty?”
“Joseph was thrown into a pit and despised,” Lucado continued. “Some people never get out. It’s not easy to get out of a pit. There’s no easy exit. Joseph’s story if you know, it got worse before it got better.”
Just like Joseph, the uncovering of the child sexual abuse of former Gateway Church senior pastor, Robert Morris, against Cindy Clemishire has hit this church in the most unimaginable way. As more details arise, the situation for the church appears to have gotten worse instead of better.
“How did he flourish during a tough time, during a hard season, during an uphill walk?” Lucado asked. “He said this to his brothers: ‘As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.’”
Keeping faith during difficult seasons is not only painful and sometimes confusing, but like Joseph, it is about realizing that God uses all things for His glory. No matter the season or the struggle Gateway Church is in right now, He can use it for the good of every single congregant who calls it their home church.
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Abby Trivett is content development editor for Charisma Media.
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