Genesis Chapter 39: Verses 20-23 (NLT Translation)
So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoner’s were held, and there he remained. But the LORD was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the LORD made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. Before long the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison. The warden had no more worries because Joseph took care of everything. The LORD was with him and caused everything he did to succeed.
I’m sure that at the beginning of his prison term, Joseph would have asked God to set him free. After all, he’d been wrongly accused and was totally innocent – it wasn’t fair. But God had plans for Joseph that meant that for a season in his life he had to stay where he was, somewhere he almost certainly didn’t want to be. But God stayed right there with him!
I’m sure too that there will have been times when Joseph felt sorry for himself- he was only human. Without God’s presence with him, he would have been totally miserable. But because God was with him, he had the strength and courage to do his best in the situation he was in. And it didn’t go unnoticed. He had an impact on other lives – even there. The other prisoners were supervised by someone who understood their situation and who could empathise with them. Because of Joseph the warden no longer had any worries about his job. God was using Joseph right there in the situation he was in.
We might not feel we’re in an ideal situation, or even where we want to be. We might be feeling sorry for ourselves and we might even have just cause to feel that way. We may have asked God to get us out of the situation we find ourselves in.
But if God says no, which He sometimes does, there’s one thing we can be sure of, and that is that God will not leave us alone. We will have His presence with us, just as He was with Joseph, for without that we would indeed have reason to be miserable. And if we stop feeling sorry for ourselves and receive the strength and peace God offers to us through His Holy Spirit, people will notice. They might even be impacted.
God had bigger plans for Joseph and this time in prison was a chapter in his life that would lead on to those other things. Joseph realised that he had to trust God in order to get the best out of that time in his life. We need to trust God too in order to get through our own difficult times. But even in those God can use us to be a blessing to others.
Dear God,
Thank You that You were with Joseph throughout all his trials. Thank You that Jesus also promised that He would never leave us or forsake us, even in a circumstance or situation that we would rather not be in.
Help me to find the peace and strength that You offer to enable me to do all that You ask, even when times are hard, and may Your presence with me be a blessing to others through it all.
I ask in Jesus’ Name. Amen.