From Your Director of Missions

¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? ²⁰ As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” Genesis 50:19-20

I just love these verses from the Old Testament. The jealousy of Joseph’s brothers toward him had caused them to conspire and fulfill a plan to get rid of him from the family. They hated him so much that they sold him into slavery and used the blood of an animal on his clothes to tell their father he had been killed. From that point forward it was a chain of disasters in Joseph's life. He was falsely accused of rape and he was placed in prison and left there to die. There must have been plenty of times during this dark period when Joseph wondered what God was doing in his life.

But the story didn’t end there. God was in control of the entire situation. Most of you know the story of how God took Joseph through all of these situations only to eventually bring him to the place he needed to be to take care of his family and save God’s chosen people from starvation and effectively wipe them from the face of the earth.

That’s what I love so much about verse 20 of chapter 50. It doesn’t say that the brothers meant it for evil, but God changed it for good. Instead, it says, “you meant it for evil against me, but God meant it for good.” God didn’t just make a bad situation better. He engineered the entire circumstance of Joseph’s life for Good. He meant it to happen the way it happened!

God is at work in our lives at all times. We go through some dark times and it takes strong faith and belief to hang in there sometimes. But, the truth is everything we go through has a reason.

²⁸ And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

Notice it's not ‘some things’ it’s ‘ALL THINGS’ that work together for good.” Now that is a promise I have held on to throughout my ministry. Not ‘all things’ are going to be comfortable for us. Not ‘all things’ are going to go the way we want them to go, but ‘all things’ are happening according to His purpose.

Whatever you are dealing with right now, just remember who is ultimately in control. Someday you will be able to reflect back on the darkness you are living through and understand why God had to bring you down this path. Have faith now in His promise and look forward to the time when God will be able to use this time for His glory