“The name of the second he called Ephraim, for God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
– Genesis 41:52
What a great sentence. “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” I just think about challenges, affliction I’ve walked through, pain I’ve walked through in my life. I don’t presume that I’ve walked through near as much pain as a variety of people who are listening to this right now, near as much affliction or suffering or trial, but I just think about as I’ve walked through trials.
I think about when my dad, best friend in the world, died suddenly of a heart attack and the affliction and the pain and the hurt, and yet I can totally say Genesis 41:52, that God made that affliction fruitful. I saw God in ways I’d never seen him before. I experienced the grace of God and the peace of God and the comfort of God and the love of God in such like physical, tangible ways. It was just like God wrapping his arms of love around me, around my family.
Genesis 41:52 Reminds Us God Uses Our Affliction
God’s purposes cannot be thwarted and His promises will come to pass.
I see this. I see this not just in my own affliction, but as this week I have walked alongside a family through massive affliction, just unexpected tragedy, and yet to see God’s grace and God’s mercy in like little ways in the middle of affliction. I think about being at the hospital recently with another family going through affliction and just hearing them share testimony there in the waiting room about how God was so kind in this way, in small way, in that small way, and this big way over here, and just the fruit of faith. It was just so faith building sitting around that waiting room.
None of this is easy. Neither of these families, my family, we would not choose to walk through that kind of affliction. Nobody chooses affliction, yet God is so gracious. He’s so kind. He’s so good that he takes even our affliction and makes it fruitful.
This Verse Leads Us to Thank God For His Faithfulness
We pray, God thank you. Thank you for your love and comfort and peace and strength and faithfulness in the middle of affliction that leads to fruitfulness in our affliction. God, I pray for those who are walking through affliction right now. I think about these families that I’ve been in the hospital with, I’ve been walking alongside this last week. I think about other individuals and families right now who are walking through really challenging times.
God, I pray that you would bring about fruit from these times, you would show yourself strong, God that they would know your love in greater ways that they’ve ever known your love, that they would know your peace in greater ways than they’ve ever known your peace, God they would know your comfort and the hope that’s found in you in even greater, deeper, higher, more wonderful ways than they’ve ever known.
God, please take affliction and bring about fruit from it. God, we don’t want our affliction to be wasted in this sense. God, we want our affliction to be fruitful. Please, please bring about Joseph’s conclusion in our lives. May we be able to say, “God has made us fruitful in the land of our affliction”. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
