Genesis 50:18-20 NLT
Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. "Look, we are your slaves!" they said. [19] But Joseph replied, "Don't be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? [20] 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.
We can all look back in our lives and trace God's handwriting in the midst of dark circumstances.
God has purposes and plans beyond our understanding - sometimes He has to allow an evil plot to flourish in order to bring about something too immense for words.
Look at Joseph's life - hated and envied by his jealous brothers - the spoilt kid became the saviour of many in Egypt and the surrounding nations, including said jealous brothers!
His gift of dreaming and interpreting them got him thrown into a pit, sold into slavery and eventually into prison, but finally to the great promotion (which the Lord was engineering all the time).
Imagine if he had yielded to Potiphar's wife's advances and started a secret liaison behind Potiphar's back. He would have never found himself falsely accused of attempted rape.
Then the famine would have affected devastation in Egypt, he included, and his family back in Canaan.
Esther found herself in a king's hareem, not the usual position to be used of God! Yet, through her attractive winsomeness she charmed the king's heart and saved her people from a genocide.
Esther 4:14 NLT
If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?"
Each one of us has been placed in a unique situation "for such a time as this", will we pick up and run with the Lord's mission or will we drop the baton for another to replace us?
Hold steady in the knowledge that the Sovereign God of Creation is in control not just of your life, but also of those around you and indeed of history.
Romans 8:28 NLT
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
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