I recently read the following on FB, and it made me think about how I am constantly asking God for more patience! From one “season to another”, it seems that more and more patience is needed from my Creator and Sustainer. Can you imagine waiting for 15 or 40 years for God’s promises to be manifested in your life?
What would that be like - to be waiting for 40 years for something God had promised? I found an account of what it must have been like for Joseph and his time of “waiting” in prison. A very insightful “inside” view of his waiting...
Joseph: Staying Faithful When Things Just Get Worse
By Jon Bloom, staff writer at DesiringGod.org
Genesis chapters 37-41 only tell the low and high points of Joseph's Egyptian slavery and imprisonment. But he spent at least 12 years there before he suddenly became Prime Minister. And as he sought to trust and obey God during that terribly lonely, desolate time, things went from bad to worse.
Darkness had swallowed the light again. Joseph dreaded the night in this foul Egyptian hellhole. It was hard to fight off the relentless hopelessness as he waited the escape of sleep. Day after monotonous day passed with no sign of change. The familiar desperation surged hot in his chest. His youth was seeping out the cracks of his cage. He was pacing in his soul. Joseph wanted to scream. Fists to his forehead he pleaded again with God in the dark for deliverance.
And he remembered. It was the remembering that kept his hope alive and bitterness at bay.
He rehearsed the stories of God that had filled him with awe as a child. God had promised Great-grandfather, Abraham, a child by his barren wife. But he made them wait an agonizing 25 years before giving them Grandfather Isaac. And God had promised Grandmother Rebekah that her older twin, Uncle Esau, would serve the younger twin, Father Jacob. But God had mysteriously woven human deception and immorality into his plan to make that happen.
Jacob's smile filled Joseph's mind. O Father. He covered his mouth to choke back his sobs. It had been 9 years since he last saw that dear face. Would he ever again? Was Father still alive? He felt something crawl across his leg. Leaping up, he brushed himself off. He shook out the mat. A shiver ran down his spine. Joseph hated spiders. Laying back down he remembered how Father Jacob had been caught in his Uncle Laban's manipulative web for 20 long years. Yet God was faithful to his word and eventually delivered Jacob and brought him back to the Promised Land a wealthy man.
And then there were those strange dreams. They had been unusually powerful, unlike any others before or since. He felt ambivalent about them. They likely were the reason he was now in Egypt. His brothers' envy of his father's favor turned homicidal when he inferred that he had God's favor as well.
Distant screams let Joseph know another fight had broken out in the barracks. It made him grateful for his private cell, the favor bestowed on the chief scribe to the warden. He smiled at the irony of this "favor." His brothers would love this if they knew. He seemed about as far away from what those dreams foretold as he could be.
Yet, as foolish as it seemed right now, Joseph could not shake the deep conviction that God meant to bring those dreams to pass. And he could not deny the strange pattern he saw in God's dealings with his forebears. God made stunning promises and then ordained time and circumstances to work in such ways as to make the promises seem impossible to fulfill. And then God moved.
The common thread Joseph traced through all the stories, the one thing God seemed to honor and bless more than anything else, was faith. Abraham trusted God's word. Isaac trusted God's word. Rebekah trusted God's word. Jacob trusted God's word. All of them ultimately saw God's faithfulness to his promises, despite circumstances and their own failings.
Faith-fueled peace doused the anxious fire in Joseph's chest. "I trust you, my God he whispered." "Like my forefathers, I will wait for you. I have no idea what my being in an Egyptian prison has to do with your purposes. But I will keep honoring you here where you have placed me. Bring your word to pass as it seems best to you. I am yours. Use me!"
Keep your FAITH!
Several months ago, God shared this scripture with me. As we prepare to enter into a new calendar year, let's get excited and hopeful, and become fearless and bold for what God will do in 2019!
Keep FAITH in the God who is doing a new thing in each of us and who simply asks us to wait on Him!!
Happy New Year!
Thanks for stopping by,
Rachel
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