Joseph’s Faith in God

As I said last week, the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis is one of my most favorite stories of all. There are other figures in the Bible who fall into the same sort of category. People who, through no fault of their own, were placed in less than desirable situations in life and all they could do was put their faith and trust in God’s sovereignty.

Joseph understood that nothing happened to him except what God, for whatever reason, allowed. It helped him not to fight against what was happening and simply roll with the tide, so to speak.

Do you think your family is dysfunctional?  Joseph came from an extremely dysfunctional family.  First off,  his father, Jacob, stole his brother’s  (Joseph’s uncle)  birthright.  Jacob ( Joseph’s father)  was tricked into marrying one daughter, Leah, when he thought he was marrying the other, Rachel.  His aunt, Leah, had many sons by his father and his mother, Rachel,  remained barren. Finally,  Joseph’s mother  asked her maidservant to sleep with her husband and bear children for her. In time, Rachel gave birth to Joseph and eventually his baby brother, Benjamin,  but she died while giving birth to Benjamin. So he basically was a motherless child.   His step brothers hated him. They wanted to kill him,  but decide to sell him into slavery to the Ishmaelites… You remember Ishmael? That was Isaac’s half brother. Isaac was Joseph’s grandfather. Trust me, their family issues go waaaaay back.

I feel like I just watched a Judge Judy marathon!  This should give us all hope, regardless of our  family or situation.

The truth we should get from the story of Joseph and his highly dysfunctional family is this:

#1  God can use anyone. ~ Obviously…don’t think you have to have a perfect life or family…..you don’t!

#2  Faith pleases God greatly. ~Just be confident that God is working things out for you….

#3  No matter what happens, God is with us.~ God is omnipresent….all around and every place you go…if you go to the mountain top..he is there…down into the deepest valley, He is there, too!

#4  Do good to those who do us wrong and even those who take advantage and use us. ~ Just do good…

#5  God will deal with our enemies, leave them to Him! ~ Just drop it. Stop talking about it and go on about your life…forget them.

#6  What other people mean for evil,  God will use for our good. ~ He has a habit of turning things around…like dead people rising and stuff like that…

#7  God has a plan for our life, trust Him. ~ you are precious to God…

#8  God can use any and all circumstances for our good. No matter how things look…trust God. ~ He’s got everything under control

#9  We are not lost to God~ no matter where life takes us. ~ You can’t go any place that God cannot redeem your circumstances.

#10.  It’s never to late nor are things ever too far gone for God to make a difference in our lives. ~ all He wants is for you to trust Him

I love the story of Joseph. He endured and God promoted and blessed him. He had been carted off to a foreign land and worked as a slave. But he always did his best and “God was with him” scripture says. As a result he was promoted to second in command of all of Egypt.

But then, he was lied about and thrown into prison. Still scripture says “God was with him.” Joseph was left and forgotten…but it says “God was with him.” And in God’s time… not too early and not too late…he was released and given a position of honor once again.

Joseph did nothing wrong…remember that. Life’s not fair. What matters is this:  are we trusting the Lord God with our lives? Are we giving him all our cares and worries? We have to place our faith in God’s goodness no matter what. That’s what Joseph did and it pleased God.

Give whatever is troubling you in your life over to God and let Him handle it…and then just go on about your life and do good and do your best and trust in the Lord. ~It will all be fine~

This is my prayer when things get too tough….

“Lord I can’t handle this.  It seems so wrong and so unfair and I need to give this to you…it’s too heavy for me. Please take it and I am going to watch and see how you handle it for me. You said for me to cast ALL my cares on you because you care for me and I thank you that this is true.”

And then I get busy with my life and leave the worries to God. He always handles them. Trust me…no,  Trust Him!