Mike Breaux - God is With You in the Waiting (01/13/2026)
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Summary:
In this Father’s Day message from the «You Talking to Me?» series, Mike Breaux dives into Joseph’s story (Genesis 37–50) to show how God speaks through dreams and desires while prioritizing character over comfort or circumstances. From favored teen to betrayed slave, falsely accused prisoner, and eventually Egypt’s second-in-command, Joseph’s 13-year roller coaster reveals key truths: God’s will focuses on who we become (like Jesus), He’s always with us working in the dark, and He positions the right person in the right place for His purposes. Bloom where planted, trust God’s bigger view, and hold onto hope—He turns evil into eternal good.
Happy Father’s Day and Series Intro
All right, good morning, everybody! Great to see you all! Let me add my Happy Father’s Day to all you guys. We have so many great dudes across all of our campuses, men who are just humble and trying to make a difference in the world. Those of you who are dads, especially, we are so grateful for you today. Thanks for being with us today. My name is Breaux, by the way, and I have the privilege of being a dad. We have three kids and ten grandkids, which is amazing for a 42-year-old guy like me! I’m just saying! But man, I’m just grateful for all you guys who are fulfilling that important role with your life.
We are in week three of a series that we are calling «You Talking to Me?» It’s all about hearing from God about how to discover where God might be leading us and what He might want to do in and through our lives. If you missed the first couple of weeks of the series, I encourage you to get online and check it out.
Joseph’s Story and God’s Dreams
Today, I want to fly through one of my favorite stories in the entire Bible. It’s a story that illustrates what we’ve been talking about so far in this series: the story of a young guy named Joseph. A guy who, early on in his high school years, got a glimpse of God’s plan for his life through a dream. In fact, the whole story revolves around dreams, which I believe is a way that God still speaks to us. Not in a cryptic, «see if you can figure this riddle out» kind of way, but I do believe that God plants dreams in our hearts—sometimes when we’re asleep, sometimes when we’re wide awake. He speaks deep to deep and ignites a unique passion in all of us; He kind of gives us a vision for our future.
Y’all ever had one of those dreams where you just wake up and think, «What the heck was that?» I had one of those the other night; it was so real and so detailed! I was working security backstage for Taylor Swift’s Ears Tour. I had the whole backstage pass thing on, and I cannot shake it off! But sometimes, like we talked about last weekend, God plants a dream; He plants a desire; He plants a passion in our hearts, and sometimes He even gives us a glimpse, a vision of our future.
For this guy, Joseph, at 17 years old—like a senior in high school—he gets a pretty clear picture of what his future is going to look like. If you’ve got a Bible or an app that you use, we’re going to hang in Genesis 37, the book of the Old Testament, or you can just follow along on the screens. We’re going to be flying through these next chapters all the way to the very last chapter of the book of Genesis. So you might want to spend some time later on today just reading the whole thing in one sitting.
There are several key principles I want to highlight from Joseph’s life as it relates to this whole hearing from God and pursuing the dreams that He plants within us. I want to remind you of our main principle once again. We’ve seen this for three weeks now, and we’ll see it next week as well. So I want to remind you before we jump into the text: God’s will for your life is much more about who you are than where you go or what you do. Let’s just read that out loud together: «God’s will for your life is much more about who you are than where you go or what you do.»
Scripture tells us that God wants to shape you and me to be more and more like Jesus. God does have big dreams for us; God will lead us. But His primary dream for us has a lot more to do with who we’re becoming than it does with a specific place or project. For Joseph, God had a unique dream for his life. Incredibly, as a 17-year-old guy, God lets him in on it.
The Dream and Family Conflict
So let’s just jump into Genesis 37. It goes like this: «Now Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children, because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day he gave Joseph a special gift, a beautiful robe. But his brothers hated Joseph because of their father’s partiality; they could not say a kind word to him. One night Joseph had a dream and promptly reported the details to his brothers, causing them to hate him even more. 'Listen to this dream, ' he announced. 'We were out in the field tying up bundles of grain. My bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed before it.' 'So you’re going to be our king, are you? ' his brothers taunted. They hated him all the more for his dream and what he had said.»
Now we see here in the beginning that Joseph was his father’s favorite and had been given special treatment. This Technicolor Dream Coat made more than just a fashion statement; it kind of flaunted his dad’s partiality in the face of all his brothers. I heard about a sales guy going door-to-door knocking. He knocks on one door, and the door swings open. There’s a nine-year-old boy smoking a huge cigar, and the salesman says, «Is your mother home?» He goes, «What do you think?»
Now here’s what I think: either mom wasn’t home, or he was the youngest in the family because the youngest gets away with everything! Am I right? Anybody here the baby of the family? Just raise your hand. Let’s just go ahead and boo these privileged divas! I’m just kidding—totally kidding! Now the fact that he was his dad’s favorite wasn’t Joseph’s fault. It’s not really great parenting, but you can see why it says his brothers couldn’t stand him. Can any of you imagine just walking into the family room one day and saying, «Excuse me, everybody, I’ve got an announcement I’d like to make. I got a word from God. I don’t have all the details yet, but this much is pretty clear: everybody in this family is going to serve me! In fact, someday you are all going to bow down before me.» Not the best discernment on Joseph’s part; he probably should have kept that one to himself. It was a little cocky to tell your whole family that you’re going to become greater than all of them. You know what? That cockiness was a character defect that God would have to work out of him.
Now that was the word that God gave Joseph. He was saying to him as a 17-year-old guy, «I’ve got a dream for your life. I’m going to raise you up to not only a position above your brothers and your own family but to a place of power over all the nations.» And you know what? That is eventually what happens in his life when the most powerful king in the world at that time, the Pharaoh of Egypt, puts him in charge, and he rules as a 30-year-old guy. But you know as well as I do that sometimes this great adventure of discovering and living in God’s will for your life can be quite the roller coaster ride, right? Sometimes you hear the still, small voice of God saying, «This is where I’m leading you; follow me, » and then in the next breath you hear Him say, «Please fasten your seatbelt, grab hold of the bar in front of you, keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times until your car comes to a complete stop. Enjoy the ride!»
The Roller Coaster: Betrayal to Slavery
And that’s what we discover in Joseph’s life. From age 17 to age 30, the 13 years that fall in between these two events were absolute wild ride years—13 years where it might have been possible for Joseph to lose sight of any hope that God even cared about him at all, much less that God had something good in mind for his life. Y’all ever have one of those days, one of those weeks, one of those lives?
So Joseph’s brothers hated him. Some of you know the story. The brothers are out in the pastures of Dothan, and they’re tending the sheep. Dad, Jacob, sends little brother Joseph on a trip to check on them and take them some much-needed supplies. They see Joseph coming over the hill, and he’s wearing his dad likes me better than you jacket, and they’re not happy. They’re not excited. Nobody says, «Hey, what’s up, little bro?» Their hate and resentment start to churn within them, and they say, «You know what? When he gets here, let’s just kill him.»
So they devise a plan. They find an empty pit and say, «When he gets here, let’s just beat him up and throw him in this pit, and then we’ll figure out what we’re going to do with him. We’ll just rip that stinking robe off of him; we’ll kill an animal and throw the blood of the animal all over his robe. We’ll drop his body in the pit and tell Dad that some bear, some lion, or some animal got him on the way here. He will be history! We will never bow down before him; we will certainly never serve him! We won’t have to worry about him anymore! He will be gone and out of the picture.»
Some of y’all think you’ve got sibling rivalry going on at your house! So Joseph shows up and says, «Hey guys, got some stuff for you, » and the brothers say, «We’ve got some stuff for you!» They grab him, rip his robe off, beat him up, and all of a sudden he’s in a pit looking up. Ever had one of those days?
Well, his brothers sit down to eat lunch, thinking about what they’re going to do with him, and they see the Ishmaelites—sort of a gypsy band of people—moving across the desert in their caravan. One of the brothers sees dollar signs flash before his eyes. He says, «Hey guys, I’ve got a brilliant idea: we don’t have to kill him; let’s sell him! Ever want to sell your little brother? We’ll sell him to these gypsies coming across; we’ll get some cash for him! We can still show Dad the blood-soaked robe that we found and tell him that his favorite son got all tangled up with a mountain lion on the way, and he died. Dad will never know the difference, and we won’t have to live with the guilt of killing our own brother. Plus, we’ll make a few bucks in the process!»
They say that’s a plan, so the Israelites come along, and these guys sell their little brother for about eight ounces of silver. Into their hands he goes straight into Egypt and is put into a slave auction, where he is bought by a guy named Potiphar, who was the head of security for Pharaoh, the king.
Faithfulness in Potiphar’s House
Well, this guy Potiphar takes him home and puts Joseph to work, and he is now no longer the golden child of the family. His dream is not working out exactly the way he had pictured, but remember this: God’s dream, God’s plan, God’s will for our lives is so much more about who we are than where we go or what we do.
God was interested in using whatever came Joseph’s way to mold and shape his character. Remember that little cockiness, that brashness, that character defect? As Joseph worked as a servant in Potiphar’s house, he learned humility. Like we talked about last weekend, some of us might not be in our «quote-unquote» dream job right now—neither was Joseph! But if you read it, you’ll see that he was faithful, he was obedient, he had a great attitude, he worked hard, he did the right thing, and he didn’t gripe or complain. He was full of integrity, and in spite of the circumstances he was in, he chose to do what we talked about last weekend: to dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
As a result, God used his life and gave him success in everything he touched in Potiphar’s house. Well, after a while, Potiphar notices this and says to Joseph, «Man, you are a special dude! You are really good! You’re honest, trustworthy, and loyal. You do things with excellence! You know what? Everything I have is in your command. You’ve got full run of the house; I’m trusting you with all my administrative affairs.»
Temptation and Prison
So Joseph is doing his thing with care. He’s being honored by God. Things weren’t exactly like they were back home with Dad, but this new job was working out okay until Potiphar’s wife—you might know the story—decides she has this thing for Joseph. The scripture actually says that Joseph was well-built and handsome. I did a little word study on the ancient Hebrew word for handsome; it literally translates to «totally bald with a white beard.» That’s what it means; look it up yourself!
Well, anyway, Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce Joseph, but because of the authenticity of his heart, he won’t give in! He thinks, «Man, Potiphar trusts me. He’s given me everything in his house! How could I take his own wife?» Then he says to her, «Listen, I can’t do this and sin against God!» and he won’t give in.
Well, she is totally frustrated by that, so one day when nobody else is around, when Joseph is working inside the house, she grabs his clothes and demands that he sleep with her. He pulls away, and as he does, his shirt jacket comes off, and he runs out of the house. She’s left holding his cloak and embarrassingly begins to scream that this slave tried to sexually assault her. When Potiphar comes home, she tells him this big phony melodramatic story, which makes Potiphar furious, and he throws Joseph in jail for attempted rape!
Ever had one of those kinds of days when you’re just trying to do the right thing, trying to do the honorable thing, and then all of a sudden you find yourself looking through the prison bars of false accusation? But you know what the scripture says? It says God was with him in that jail. He was right there with him.
Now, I don’t know, but maybe God was reminding him, «Remember the dream, Joseph? I really do have great plans for your life. I’ve got a great vision for you. I’m going to take you somewhere. I really am going to do something extraordinary with your life.» I don’t know, but if I were Joseph, just being honest, I might have been thinking, «Yeah, this is great, God. Certainly living the dream—getting beat up by my brothers, thrown in a pit—that was awesome! That trip through the desert, chained up with a bunch of gypsies? Wow! Would love to rebook that cruise! Being sold as a slave in Potiphar’s house? Sexual assault charges for simply trying to honor you? This is exactly how I dream my life would turn out!»
But instead of thinking any of that, Joseph just leans into God’s continual presence. He knew that God was with him, and he trusts God’s heart.
Faithfulness in Prison and Dreams Interpreted
After a while, guess what happens? The warden makes Joseph head over the whole jail! You see, in spite of the circumstances, Joseph did exactly what that scripture we saw last weekend said to do. In fact, let’s throw it back up there, and let’s just read this out loud together.
Psalm 37, beginning in verse three: «Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust also in Him, and He will do it. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.»
Gang, Joseph did that! He decided, «I’m going to bloom wherever I’m currently planted.» God was so with him, and he was so honorable, so filled with integrity, and so filled with a servant spirit that they made him a trustee, kind of an inmate number one.
Well, Pharaoh, the king, gets real temperamental one day and sends these two guys to jail: his cupbearer, which is kind of his personal butler, and his baker. Don’t know why he sends them there, but he gets ticked off, and kings do things like that. He throws them in prison. While they’re there, the cupbearer and the baker have these dreams. They start talking to Joseph, «Man, we’ve been having these crazy dreams, like, what the heck? They feel so real; they’re so detailed! Like, the other night we were working security at the Taylor—no, that was my dream! They say, ‘Our dreams are super detailed; in fact, they’re kind of scaring us. We can’t figure out what these dreams mean. You know anything about dreams? That ever happen to you? ’»
Joseph goes, «Absolutely! Man, I know dreams! I had one when I was 17 years old that God was going to make me the ruler of a nation, and all my brothers and family were going to bow down to me!» They’re probably looking at each other thinking, «Okay, so what are you doing here?» But anyway, they say, «Well, all right, we both have these dreams, and we don’t know what to do with them.» Joseph says, «Listen, we’re not going anywhere, anyway, so why don’t you tell them to me?»
So the two of them do, and Joseph, through the power of God, interprets these dreams and says, «Okay, here’s the deal. I don’t know how to break it to you; I’m super sorry, Mr. Baker, but this is going to be it for you. The dream means that your days are numbered, three to be exact; you’re going to be executed. I’m so sorry! Mr. Cupbearer, I’ve got good news for you: in three days, you’re going to be restored to your position with the Pharaoh. Oh, and just one small thing: I’m not really supposed to be here; I’ve been kidnapped, sold, I was framed, I was set up. So when you get back to the palace, the name’s Joseph. Could you put in a good word for Joseph?»
Well, it happens in three days, just as Joseph had predicted: the baker was history, and in three days, the cupbearer was right back in the throne room of Pharaoh. But guess what? He forgot to mention—he forgot Joseph! Ever had one of those days? For two years—the scripture emphasizes for two full years—Joseph waited in that jail until finally the Pharaoh has a couple of dreams, and he’s getting all stressed out about them. He can’t figure out what they mean; he can’t get an answer from any of his magicians or so-called wise men of his nation.
All of a sudden, the cupbearer remembers: «Hey, wait a second! There was this guy I met in prison. Man, he was great with dreams! His name was—oh, what was his name? His name was—oh shoot! Joseph! That’s it! You ought to bring that guy in!»
Character Over Comfort
Let’s just suspend the story right there. Let me just say this: 13 years have gone by—not 13 minutes, not 13 weeks, not 13 days—13 years. In every one of those moments, I think Joseph could have been tempted, like you and me, to lose total hope that there was a loving God who had great plans for his life. I don’t know, but maybe you’re right now in the middle of one of those 13-year seasons. I just want to remind you that God sees the whole picture, and whatever you’re currently able to see is just a little snapshot that fits into the plan that God is lovingly unfolding for your life. God promises He does have a hope and a future for your life.
But can I add this disclaimer? His plans for us don’t necessarily look like the American dream. Because here’s what I have a tendency to do—maybe you do too: we let our culture paint a picture of what the dream life looks like, and then we set that canvas up before God and say, «God, as long as Your plan and this picture match up with, like, no variance, I’m cool with following You, as long as my life looks exactly like this—granite countertops, leather interior, season tickets, perfect health. I’m going to let You lead my life!»
Somewhere along the way, God is trying to say, «Excuse me? You call that letting me lead your life? You call that following My voice? You call that trusting Me for a whole in the future? Did I say somewhere that the reason I created men and women was to live in America and have all the things that make them comfortable in this world? Did I say somewhere that I wanted everybody to be wealthy? Did I say somewhere that everyone would experience a pain-free, trouble-free, blessed existence where you would always get the job, always get the house, always get the car, get the girl, get the guy, get the cash, get the scholarship, get the glowing report back from the doctor? You would always get ahead in this world? Or did I say that I just want every person to burn with passion for Me and My purposes, to trust Me as a good, good Father, to allow Me to mold them into the person I know they can be, and to follow My voice, knowing that My ways are higher and My thoughts are higher and My view is much better? My dream for you is that you would choose joy no matter what your circumstances are in this sometimes difficult life. That you would keep your eyes on Me, lean into My peace, and live grateful lives that are molded in the image of Jesus and make an eternal difference with your one and only life—wherever I lead you!»
There are a lot of important lessons I think we can take away from the story of Joseph, but here’s one that’s really helped keep me focused: God is far more interested in my character than He is in my comfort. Gang, until we start thinking that way, we’re going to miss it. We set up the canvas of our dreams before God and say it has to look like this in order for it to be Your master plan for my life. And God says to the life of Joseph, «No, it doesn’t! In fact, I told you that in this life you will have trouble. I told you in My word that there will be twists and turns, seasons of waiting. You will experience anxiety, confusion, and fear. But know this: I will be with you through it all! Plus, I will use whatever circumstances that sometimes unfair life throws at you to shape you and mold you into the person I know you can be, and I will lead you where you need to be. You can trust in that, and in the process, you can trust Me!»
God Working in the Dark
There’s another thing I’ve been learning from the story of Joseph, and it’s this: God is always with you, working in the dark. God is always with you! He’s working in the dark! You see, what Joseph could have easily done at any one of these stops along the way is he could have said, «Well, you know what, I guess God was wrong, or B, God changed His mind, or C, I did something wrong that got me bumped off the master plan track, or D, maybe the dream was just the effects of some late-night Taco Bell in the first place.»
But instead, Joseph continually just submitted himself to God, surrendered to God’s leadership, and I think I know why. Because repeatedly, over and over and over in this text, it says that God was with him! God was with him! God was with him! God was with him in Potiphar’s house; God was with him in that jail. And I think all the while Joseph was remembering that God is always at work, even in the dark!
You see, gang, when it gets dark, God doesn’t go to bed; God doesn’t sleep; God doesn’t need rest; God doesn’t take naps; He doesn’t need a double espresso shot in the morning to get Him going; He doesn’t need a Red Bull in the afternoon to give Him wings. He’s not that guy. It says this in Psalm 121: «Indeed, He who watches over Israel never tires and never sleeps. The Lord himself watches over you; the Lord stands beside you as your protective shade.»
That reminds you and me that when our bodies flop in bed tonight because we are exhausted, when we close our eyes to rest, the inexhaustible God will be up all night long working out the details of our promised hope and future! You see, when Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, God’s plan was still moving ahead. When he was in Potiphar’s house, God wasn’t caught off guard by any of that stuff. When he was falsely accused and arrested and thrown in prison, God’s dream for his life wasn’t derailed! When he was forgotten by the cupbearer, he was not forgotten by God!
As Joseph continued to wait in that jail, as those two years passed—day after day after day after day—the work in the dark, God was timing the moments of his life until at the right moment, Pharaoh has a dream and in one 24-hour period, God would move Joseph from the prison to the second most powerful position in the nation.
Christian Rieger spent four years in a very dark place: the infamous concentration camp in Dachau. He was imprisoned there by the Nazis from 1941 to 1945, and his crime was simply being a passionate follower of Jesus. He wrote this: «Nii, who was an atheist, by the way, said that a man can go through torture if he knows the why of his life. But here at Dachau I learned something far greater: I learned to know the who of my life; He was enough to sustain me then and is enough to sustain me still!»
Listen to me, listen to the life of Joseph: God has not abandoned you! He has not forgotten you! He is the who in your life, working behind the scenes in whatever dungeon experience you’re going through right now. He is committed to working all things together for good for those who love Him! You can trust Him! He is with you right now in the dark!
Maybe some of you just need to get honest with God like many of us have here and just say, «God, this is not how I saw the dream working out! Please help me see beyond the darkness because I’m feeling crushed right now. So I’m just asking You to remold me, refine me, and reshape my character into the image of Jesus. Help me trust the fact that You are the God of unfailing love, and You’re working behind the scenes, and You do see the big eternal picture.»
I just urge you to pray that kind of honest prayer. I guarantee you Joseph did a time or two, and if Joseph could survive all those years of mistreatment, loneliness, betrayal, and loss, you can too! He’s the same God!
Right Person, Right Place, Right Purposes
One last principle: God’s plan is to have the right person in the right place for His right purposes. That’s always God’s plan—to have His person in His place for His purposes! And it’s true that God’s will is much more about who we are than what we do or where we go, but it is cool when the who, the where, and the what kind of all come together!
I mean, isn’t it an awesome feeling to step back from a moment and realize that you are the right person at the right place at the right time being used for God’s right purposes? I mean, some of you dads feel that way often, and I hope you experience that today where you go, «Wow! I can’t believe this! I get to be a dad! God has placed me—He’s placed me—in this little boy’s life, this little girl’s life! I never dreamed I’d get to do this!»
It’s so fulfilling to stand back from those moments and go, «Whoa! That was a divine appointment! I did not see that coming! I was supposed to be riding in that Uber today! I was supposed to be standing in the checkout line next to that lady today! I was supposed to be sitting in the bleachers at the t-ball field today next to that person! I think I was the right person at the right time in the right place being used for God’s right purpose!» It’s an awesome feeling, isn’t it? And it always leaves me feeling humbled!
So back to the story real quick. Pharaoh has these two dreams, brings Joseph in from the prison to interpret the dreams for him, and Joseph says, «Listen, it’s beyond my personal power to do this, but my God will reveal to you what they mean.»
So Pharaoh goes through the dreams, and Joseph says, «Okay, here’s the deal, sir: it’s going to get really, really bad around here. We are going to have seven years of plenty—I mean some major heavy-duty bumper crops! But then the economy is going to tank; the bubble’s going to burst, and we’re going to have seven years of absolutely nothing because a big drought is coming. Pharaoh, if you’re really smart, you will put the excess away in storage during the seven years of plenty so that when the famine hits, the nation will have enough food to survive because I’m telling you, sir, it’s coming!»
Pharaoh says, «Wow! You’re no ordinary Joe!» Sorry, I’m stupid; you’re pretty sharp. Pharaoh says, «I can tell that God is with you!» Even a pagan king recognizes it! He says, «I’m putting you in charge of the storage process! In fact, I will be the only one in all of Egypt with a higher rank than you!»
So for seven years, Egypt gets real disciplined and stores away the excess, and just as the dream foretold, a major famine comes on the land—seven years of drought. And you know what? Nobody in the land had any food except for Egypt! You know who was in charge of all the food in Egypt? Yep! Joseph! And guess who comes to Egypt looking for some food for their family? Joseph’s brothers!
It says they come, not recognizing Joseph, and they bowed down before him.
Forgiveness and God’s Bigger Plan
I was surfing channels the other night, and even though I’ve watched it a dozen times, I watched it again: I like Equalizer One with Denzel, the baddest Home Depot employee of all time! He’s dishing out avenges and payback as he picks off these sex trafficking guys! It’s violent, it’s graphic, and I’m not recommending it for your family movie night. But if I’m Joseph in this moment, I’m just being honest; I probably got a little Denzel revenge justice thing going on inside of me!
I see my brothers standing there, and I’m thinking, «Well, well, well, look who’s here! You’ve traveled such a long way! Allow me to show you your deluxe accommodations! How do individual pits sound for each one of you? Or maybe you’d like a nice long six-month ride chained up in a desert caravan? Hey, I know this guy named Potiphar—awesome house, evil wife! Would love for you to meet her!»
But there’s none of that going on in Joseph! Check out this scene as Joseph reveals his identity and his Godly character and his understanding of God’s plan for his life. It says this: «I’m Joseph, ” he said to his brothers. „Is my father still alive?“ I think this is one of the greatest statements in the Bible, but his brothers were speechless. They were stunned to realize that Joseph was standing there in front of them.
„Come over here, ” he said. So they came inched closer. He said again, „I’m Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.“ Now, you know in this moment these guys had to be freaking out because as he’s speaking, in their mind they’re hearing, „I’m your brother who you thought you’d never see again, and now I’m ruling Egypt and therefore in control of your destiny right now! I am your absolute worst nightmare!“
But look what he says: „Don’t be angry with yourselves. You did this to me, for God did it! He sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. These two years of famine will grow to seven, during which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God sent me here to keep you and your families alive so that you will become a great nation.“ Yes, it was God who sent me here, not you!
This is so cool to me. Joseph is saying to his brother, „Look, I’m not bitter about you and me in the pit; I’m not seeking revenge for being sold as a slave and abandoned in prison. As far as I’m concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil!“ Now to be sure, it was a wild 13-year roller coaster ride, but guess what, guys? God was with me! You know what else? He’d been working on my character! I’m not the same cocky 17-year-old guy who flaunted his favoritism and bragged about his dream! God is changing me!
He’s used everything I’ve been through to make me into the right kind of person so that on the day of the famine, the right person would be in the right place at the right time to accomplish the right purposes of God! It was God who sent me here ahead of you! And you know what? It’s true: the immediate purpose was to feed the nations for seven years, but the greater purpose—this is so cool to me—the greater purpose was to preserve the sons of Jacob so that they could become the nation of Israel for the purposes of God, for the birth of Jesus Christ, for the salvation of the world, for you and me to be sitting here today, forgiven and free, with an eternal home in heaven! It was crucial that Joseph be on the throne in Egypt in that day, and that was the dream all along!
Application and Closing Prayer
I think the reason this story is one of my favorites in the Bible is because whenever I have one of those days, one of those weeks, or one of those months, one of those 13-year seasons where I say, „God, I don’t get this; it’s not what I had pictured! In fact, God, it feels like the whole thing is coming unraveled around me!“ I can choose to do what Joseph did: I can lean into the One that I know loves me and has a better view from above and say, „You know what, Father? I can’t make sense of any of this; I don’t get it, but I know You do! You’ve got a better view, a deeper love, and Your wisdom is far beyond my wisdom! I know You’re working in the dark on my behalf, so I’m just going to trust You, and I’m going to keep my eyes on You, and however You want to use me, I’ll just bloom where I’m planted and put my life in Your hands every day!“
God holds so much more for your life than what you can currently see! I want to encourage you to focus beyond your circumstances to the hope that God promises in life. Like Joseph, just be honorable in whatever circumstance you’re currently in. Just bloom where you’re planted. Listen to the Holy Spirit throughout the day and let Him lead you in the little things. Don’t lose hope in the God who never sleeps! When you crawl into bed at the close of this day, you can say, „I may not know all the specifics of Your plan, God, but it feels really good to be in the hands of the One who does!“
Father, I thank You that that’s true, that You have such a deep love and such great wisdom, and You do have a hope and a future for our lives. Thank You that eternal life is real. We may not see that plan take place on this side of eternity, but God, in the big scheme of things, we know You’re working it out for our good. Thank You that in Your economy, good means that we’re becoming more and more like Jesus. So whatever happens in this life to make us more and more like Jesus, God, we will consider that just good!
So Father, help us to be like Joseph and know that You’re with us-that You’re with us! And I pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.