Unshackled Moment ~ March 3 ~ We Haven't Been Deserted

Joseph was the favorite child of his father, and he was also blessed and chosen of God to save his entire family and do great things. He played a major role in protecting the line that would lead to the birth of the Messiah. That means Joseph had a role in bringing you and me to Christ. He is one of the greatest success stories ever told, the man who went from slave, to convict ,to the throne of Egypt, and second only to Pharaoh himself.

God gave Joseph a dream of being used and blessed and put in a high position. Joseph believed the dream and trusted in God to bring it to pass. His jealous brothers threw him in a pit, sold him into slavery and told his father he had been killed by wild animals. He became a slave. Then after being falsely accused of rape he was thrown into prison. Because God continued to use him in prison he blessed someone who was able to help him come to the Pharaoh's attention. He ministered to Pharaoh and was lifted out of prison and made second in command of the greatest nation on earth at that time. He then saved his people and many others from a horrible famine.

But that success story took 22 years from the pit to protector. He hadn't failed. He didn't make a huge mess of his calling. He hadn't lost faith and gotten delayed because of it. It happened the way it did in order to place him in the right place at the right time to rise to power in Egypt. And it took over two decades, most of which he spent as a slave or a prisoner, lied about, rejected, bound, and mistreated. Things didn't go his way or smoothly for two decades, but he never gave up on the truth that what God says He will do He will do.

Today, let us not be quick to despair. Sometimes the restoration of our lives and the fulfillment of promises God has made take longer than we would like. Sometimes bringing them to pass means taking us through the pits, rejected, used and abused in order to prepare us and the world around us for the great things that He will do in our lives. But He will be there with us every moment in the dark. Don't give up and never doubt His love because His timing is different than we would like. Many of us would have traded 22 years as a slave and a prisoner to become second in command of the greatest nation on earth for the rest of our life and a hero to our family. But to do it without having the whole picture day to day makes those twenty years a period of darkness and despair. Let us not forget that we can't see the whole picture, but God can.

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