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Your world seems a bit darker these days. But you were born in the dark, right?
Oh, Lord Jesus, you entered the dark world of your day. Won’t you enter ours?
“You’ll get through this. It won’t be painless. It won’t be quick. But God will use this mess for good. In the meantime don’t be foolish or naive. But don’t despair either. With God’s help you will get through this.”
Some people never recover. Life is reduced to one quest: get out and never be hurt again. Not simply done. Pits have no easy exits.
He not only survived; he thrived. He ascended like a helium balloon.
By the end of his life, Joseph was the second most powerful man of his generation.
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. (Genesis 50:20 NASB)
eventual good.
The torn robe became a royal one. The pit became a palace. The broken family grew old together. The very acts intended to destroy God’s servant turned out to strengthen him.
God, the Master Weaver. He stretches the yarn and intertwines the colors, the ragged twine with the velvet strings, the pains with the pleasures. Nothing escapes his reach.
cast him into a pit”) became the triumph of Genesis 50:20
You’ll get through this. You fear you won’t. We all do. We fear that the depression will never lift, the yelling will never stop, the pain will never leave.
Yes! Deliverance is to the Bible what jazz music is to Mardi Gras: bold, brassy, and everywhere.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. (Isa. 43:2)1
Does God guarantee the absence of struggle and the abundance of strength? Not in this life. But he does pledge to reweave your pain for a higher purpose.
How long will God take with you? He may take his time. His history is redeemed not in minutes but in lifetimes.
But God will use your mess for good. We see a perfect mess; God sees a perfect chance to train, test, and teach the future prime minister. We see a prison; God sees a kiln. We see famine; God sees the relocation of his chosen lineage. We call it Egypt; God calls it protective custody, where the sons of Jacob can escape barbaric Canaan and multiply abundantly in peace. We see Satan’s tricks and ploys. God sees Satan tripped and foiled.
Let me be clear. You are a version of Joseph in your generation. You represent a challenge to Satan’s plan. You carry something of God within you, something noble and holy, something the world needs—wisdom, kindness, mercy, skill. If Satan can neutralize you, he can mute your influence. The story of Joseph is in the Bible for this reason: to teach you to trust God to tru...
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Yet for all its rottenness doesn’t the pit do this much? It forces you to look upward.
A dramatic crisis requires a dramatic response, right? Not always. We equate spirituality with high drama:
Yet for every Paul and Peter, there are a dozen Josephs. Men and women blessed with skills of administration. Steady hands through whom God saves people. Joseph never raised the dead, but he kept people from dying. He never healed the sick, but he kept sickness from spreading. He made a plan and stuck with it. And because he did, the nation survived. He triumphed with a calm, methodical plan.
than 2.5 million copies were printed yet never seen
You can do the same. You
can’t control the weather. You aren’t in charge of the economy.
“They all led their teams with a surprising method
of self-control in an out-of-control world.”2
In the end it’s not the flashy and flamboyant who survive. It is those with stead...
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A second shoe is not going to drop. God’s promise has no hidden language. Let grace happen, for heaven’s sake. Of all the things you must earn in life, God’s unending affection is not one of them. You have it. Stretch yourself out in the hammock of grace.
