What pains in your life are waiting to be acknowledged and grieved?
Look at what Joseph says in Genesis 45:7 (NLT)
God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors. So it is God who sent me here not you!
Then in chapter 50:20 NLT
You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.
How was Joseph able to say that after all he went through? How was he able to break free from the past?
Pastor and author John Ortberg, says this about Joseph – “The Lord was with Joseph. Joseph is not alone.
What happens to someone who loses everything but God, then finds out that God is enough?
God wasn’t at work producing the circumstances Joseph wanted. God was at work in bad circumstances producing the Joseph that God wanted.”
You are not alone. God is at work – even in the bad situations – producing the you that he wants.
You can’t change what happened in the past. But you can allow God to rescue and redeem it.
You can break free from your past – or you can let your past break you.
When you don’t forgive you give the enemy a foothold – footholds give hold to strongholds.
Is there anything in your past that you need to break free from?
Someone you need to forgive?
A stronghold that you need God to break down for you?
Joseph gives us the key.
Somehow, Joseph felt the Lord’s presence with him – even when it didn’t seem like it. He showed his trust in God by making right choices in each MOMENT of need.
And that’s what we need. As Dallas Willard says, we grow in our faith by trusting God in our moment of need. Not before that moment. Not after, but during. That’s how we practice trust. That’s how we show faith.
If you want faith, ask God – and when you ask, be willing to let him take you through what is necessary to prepare for what’s to come. Do you trust God enough to follow him even when it doesn’t make sense?
