A Gift in Time of Evil
1 Chronicles 7:23
“And when he went in to his wife, she conceived, and bare a son, and
he called his name Beriah, because it went evil with his house.”
Ephraim had an unexpected heartache happen.
All of the sons of Ephraim went to take away the cattle of the men of Gath, but the men of Gath slew the sons of Ephraim. Now, his whole future seemed to be bleak. All of his sons were dead, his heart was crushed, and he could easily have let this incident in his life dictate a negative response. To Ephraim’s credit, he didn’t let this time of unexpected heartache dictate his future. Instead, Ephraim went into his wife and she conceived, and God gave him another son. Ephraim named this son Beriah. The name Beriah means a gift in time of evil. In other words, Ephraim was saying that he was going to make good come out of his bad. Ephraim’s outlook on Beriah’s life is probably what challenged him not to let anything stop him, which resulted in his founding the city of Ajalon and expelling the Gittites.
Your outlook on life does matter. We cannot control what happens in life, but we can control our outlook on how we face life’s unexpected evils. You can’t control when sickness comes, but you can control how you live through sickness. You can’t control every situation in life, but you can control your disposition through each situation. You can let what happens in life affect your outlook for evil or for good. You can look at the negative events in life as an evil or a gift from God to make it a tool to do something great for God. Your outlook on life’s circumstances affects your abilities. Don’t let the negative in life cause you will shut down and do nothing.
Moreover, your outlook will affect your children. Ephraim likely never thought how his outlook would affect Beriah, but it did. Your children watch you when you go through tough times, and when you let the tough times shut you down or cause you to become negative, it teaches them to let circumstances dictate what they do in life.
You must understand that many generations will be affected by your outlook. You will set back what God wants to do for the future generations if you let your life’s evil circumstances become an excuse to quit. There are two lessons you must learn about dealing with life’s evils if you are going to have a positive outlook throughout life.
First, stop allowing the external to dictate your external. Just because you are having a bad day doesn’t mean you have to have a bad day with your spirit. Always remember that no matter how bad your day is, it can always get worse. If you let the external dictate your spirit, you will never have a reason to be joyful. You must let the internal dictate what you do on the external. You must yield to the Holy Spirit on the inside so that He can affect your spirit on the outside.
Second, never give up no matter how bad it gets. What you look at as an evil could be a gift from God to do something great for Him if you don’t give up. You will never know how your evil could become a great tool of God to do something mighty through you if you give up. The only way to find out what God can do with your life’s evil circumstances is to get up and keep going. So, what are you going to do with your situation? Let me encourage you to take what life has given you and turn it into a gift from God to do something mighty for the generations to come.
