God will do Great Things when Times are Hard

But He does them on His time table, not yours.

I love the story of Joseph.  Do you know that one?  

It is very, very long, so I will try to re-tell it as briefly as possible:

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Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob.  He was so favored by his father that his brothers were very jealous.  When they were teens / young adults, their jealousy got the best of them and they sold Joseph to the Egyptians as a slave and told their father that Joseph had been killed.

So here is Joseph, now a slave.  

Does he balk? Cry? Complain? Blame God?

No.  He remains Faithful to God.   

Do things get better?   No, they get worse.

Joseph's master's wife wanted Joseph to sin against God.  When Joseph refused the wife told lies about Joseph and Joseph was put in jail.....for a very very long time!  

And he did NOTHING wrong!!  Does he balk? Cry? Complain? Blame God?

No.  He remains Faithful to God.   

Do things get better?   No, they get worse.

While in jail (for maybe over 10 years!)  Joseph discovered he had a gift for interpreting dreams.  He would interpret the dreams of other prisoners who were quite impressed.  One of those other prisoners was a servant to the Pharaoh   He told Joseph that when he was released from prison he would remember Joseph and tell the pharaoh how he was an innocent man in prison and get Pharaoh to release him.

When that day came and the servant left jail to go back to Pharaoh  did he remember Joseph?  Nope!  He forgot all about him.  And Joseph is stuck in jail for more years to come. 

Does he balk? Cry? Complain? Blame God?

No.  He remains Faithful to God.   

Do things get better?   

Well,  after a long while, (maybe 3-4 years) they finally they do.

See, Pharaoh began having a strange dream and no one could tell him what it meant.  Not any of his counselors or wise men.  Then the servant was like, "Oh Snap!  Dude, there's this guy Joseph in the jail who can tell you what it means!"  So the Pharaoh sent for Joseph.

The dream was very strange, you can read about it in the bible, but Joseph told him it meant that there would be 7 good years of food production followed by 7 years of famine.  Joseph recommended that Pharaoh store up alot of food to get his people through the famine.

Pharaoh was so impressed that he made Joseph 2nd in Command!  He was the 2nd most powerful man in all of Egypt!  And he wasn't even an Egyptian, he was an Israelite and a slave!    Was this God's reward?   Maybe.....Joseph did suffer in prison for many years. But Joseph had remained faithful and maybe now he was getting his reward.

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See, this is what is amazing to me.  All those bad things happened to him, and he never cursed God, denied God, he remained faithful to God.   And looking back, this all worked out to be God's greater plan.   See, when the famine struck, people all over, including the Israelites were starving.

If Joseph had not been sold to slavery, he never would've gone to jail.

If Joseph never went to jail, he never would've met that pharaoh's servant.

If the servant remembered Joseph and had him released before Pharaoh's dreams, who knows where Joseph would've been and probably could not have been found to interpret the dream.

If pharaoh was too stubborn to listen to a non-Egyptian slave, he would not have stored up all that food.    But he did, and it not only saved the lives of the Egyptians, but also the Israelites, God's people, who came to Egypt for food.

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I pray that you never know hardship.  

But if you find you are going through a hard time, one that looks like there is no end in sight, remember Joseph, read about him in the bible, see how he remained faithful to God and how Joseph was rewarded and in the end, saved the lives of millions of people!  

Who knows what good will come out of your hardship and how many will benefit? 

Who knows?? God knows!  

May God bless you and draw you closer to Him in good times and bad