God Made Me Forget

Enjoy this message from Pastor Tyler Schoenberger called "God Made Me Forget" on Sunday, March 22nd, 2026 at Reach Church in Bear, Delaware!

The story of Joseph in Genesis offers a profound perspective on how God transforms our understanding of pain and suffering. When Joseph named his firstborn son Manasseh, meaning God has made me forget all my hardship, he wasn't talking about erasing painful memories or pretending difficult things never happened. True forgetting means learning to see your pain from such a completely different perspective that it's almost as if the pain is forgotten.

Joseph's journey from the pit to Pharaoh's palace illustrates how God uses painful seasons as a pruning process to increase our fruitfulness. Just as Jesus taught about the vine and branches in John 15, God lovingly prunes away unhelpful mindsets and dependencies so that more of Christ's life can be expressed through us. This pruning isn't meant to tear us down but to build us up for greater purpose. Joseph's second son was named Ephraim, meaning God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction, showing how suffering can lead to increased fruitfulness.

The ultimate test of Joseph's transformation came when his brothers, who had betrayed him years earlier, stood before him needing help during the famine. Instead of seeking revenge, Joseph responded with grace, telling them not to be distressed because God had sent him ahead to preserve life. He could see his painful experiences from God's perspective, recognizing how divine purposes were accomplished through his suffering. This teaches us that forgetting means choosing to see our pain as a tool God uses for fruitfulness, straining forward to what lies ahead instead of being captive to the past, and understanding that our painful seasons prepare us for greater purpose in God's kingdom.