I would like to take a moment today and expound on my post from yesterday about God’s will.
Let’s take into account Joseph in the Bible. He was doing nothing wrong, when suddenly his family started hating him and sold him into slavery. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t Joseph’s plan for his life! He was then bought by Potiphar, who was an officer of Pharaoh’s, and captain of the guard. When Potiphar saw God was with Joseph and made everything he did to prosper, he then appointed Joseph as overseer over everything he had. Things were finally looking up! Maybe Joseph even thought, “Wow, God, if you had me go through all this hardship and pain for me to ultimately land in the position of overseer of Potiphar’s house, that was all so worth it!” If you recall what happened next, though, Joseph did what was right by not giving into Potiphar’s wife’s plea for him to join her in sin, and he was punished…even though he had done right. Potiphar’s wife lied about what Joseph truly did, Potiphar believed his wife, and Joseph was sent to jail. Do you ever think Joseph thought, “God, why am I here? I thought you had used all those trials you brought into my life to lead me to the ultimate position, and now here I am in jail.” The Lord was with Joseph, though, and gave him favor in the sight of the jailer, who committed to Joseph’s hand all of the prisoners.
While there, God used Joseph to interpret the dreams of the butler and the baker. Joseph gave the glory to God and asked the butler to make mention of him to Pharaoh when his former position was reinstated. If you remember, however, the butler forgot all about Joseph for two years! (Imagine what Joseph could have been thinking during all that time!) However, in the Lord’s perfect timing, God brought Joseph to the butler’s remembrance…this time because the Pharaoh needed dreams to be interpreted. God used that time He interpreted the baker’s and butler’s dreams in the jail as a stepping stone in Joseph’s life. Joseph could have very well thought after he communicated the interpretation of those dreams, “Yea! God used me in the interpretation of these dreams, and I bet that’s how He will get me out of this prison. Wouldn’t that be just like God?” So often, we think like that. We tend to think more along the lines of “immediate”, though, instead of “wait and be patient, I’m (God’s) working”. God WAS going to use that event in Joseph’s life to get Him out of jail; however, He was going to have everything be done in His own timing, not Joseph’s. Joseph had to trust God and be patient. If you know the end of the story, through God’s revelation, Joseph interpreted the dreams for Pharaoh, and Pharaoh promoted Joseph to second-in-command. God then used Joseph to save Egypt and the surrounding nations from famine, and even allowed Joseph to see his father again!
The key here is trusting God’s way is best and surrendering to His will. That is a whole lot easier said than done, though, and please know I’m not writing this in a “holier-than-thou” position. Personally, this is the hardest post I have ever written, and I cringed at myself multiple times as I wrote it through the Lord’s prompting. God kept impressing upon me, “Do YOU trust me? Do YOU truly believe My way is best?” I’ve been in what I’ve speculated to be Joseph’s position, “God, if you led me through all those trials/tests to bring me to this current position of ‘fill-in-the-blank’, I praise you! You are so good!” But the real question is, do we still praise God when we’re in the middle of what looks to us to be the bad times? When things don’t go the way we want them to? God is orchestrating all of our lives for our ultimate good, and His glory. Let’s pray He will give us grace to obediently and joyfully submit to His will, whatever it may be!
