Unshackled Moments ~ March 11 ~ Don't Fear The Dark

Does it ever feel like God has given you  a direction and once you step out on the path He's given you things go awry? It just feels like, what happened? This is what I thought was going to happen. It can make you question everything. Did I really do what God wanted me to do? Did I confuse what I wanted with what God waned and somehow miss His will for me?

Let's revisit the life and story of Joseph before we allow our fears to drag us down into the pits of despair. God gave Joseph a dream, but as soon as he began to share that dream the attacks began. His jealous brothers began to hate him and even plotted to kill him. They settled on selling him into slavery. God, you told me I would rule and here I am a slave! It had to feel like a giant leap in the wrong direction, but he held on to his faith. He began to prosper despite his status, and when things began looking up, a false accusation of attempted rape sent him to prison. Seriously? This is not what is supposed to be happening! The moment things look up, everything goes to hell. Maybe it would be better if they didn't get better because the snap back is worse than where I was before. How easy it would have been for Joseph to doubt and to sink into self pity. But he kept holding on to the truth that God is faithful, despite what his circumstances and feelings might have been telling him.

After years in prison a window of opportunity opened. Here is a glimmer of hope. God put him in a position to help someone who had the ear of Pharaoh. Here's my chance. He asked the man to tell Pharaoh his plight and received a promise for just that thing. And then he was forgotten. God, didn't you give me this chance to get out of this hole? But God knew what He was doing. If Joseph had been brought to Pharaoh then, he might have been set free from prison only to be returned to slavery. The situation in the land was not right for Joseph to move into what God planned for him. It had to be disheartening and frustrating to sit in prison feeling forgotten, but it was exactly what it took to prepare everything, the situations and Joseph and Pharaoh, for what God needed. And when the time was right, everything fell into place. But the process took years.

Don't let impatience and fear fool you into thinking that you are not where God wants you to be. He can protect you and prepare you for more, even when it feels like all that is happening is that He's leaving you or throwing you into a pit. If it feels like the rope He held out to you snapped, don't let the feeling of falling make you give up on God. Where you land will be better than the vision of the top you saw yourself climbing to. Sometimes, like Joseph, we are taken through darkness and treacherous places before we see the fulfillment of promises we received from God. Sometimes, like David, we get our anointing and then spend years fleeing and barely surviving before we step into the kingship that we were called to. But those dark times can be when we get closest to God. Don't be afraid of the dark.

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