Martin Luther King wasn't the only one with a dream. I've been studying Joseph (Genesis 37-39). God gave him a dream. It didn't fly so well with his brothers. Rather than saying "we hate your dream", they attacked him.... willing to betray him, sell him into slavery, lie to their father about it, even kill him. But in spite of man's evil intentions, Joseph ended up in the right place for his dream to be fulfilled. If he hadn't been sold to the traders, he wouldn't have been taken to Egypt and sold to Potiphar, his path to Pharoah (Potiphar was one of Pharoah's officers). This tells me that man cannot thwart the plan of God for our lives. We can be attacked, betrayed, imprisoned, rejected, BUT no human can threaten our destinies. Joseph was faithful and strong. He didn't get so discouraged that he gave up. The dream stayed alive in his spirit. He resisted temptation. He blessed others along the way. He continued to interpret dreams and waited on God. And the day finally came; his dream was fulfilled. Ironically, he was responsible for preserving the lives of the very ones who wanted to kill him (Genesis 45).
Has God given you a dream that is dwindling away inside your heart? Have you laid things down that God never asked you to lay down? Remember Joseph; the challenges he faced were distractions. The destiny for his life was still there. He just had to push through. How many times to we face a distraction and say "okay, that's it, it's all over."? No! There could be hundreds or thousands of people who need you to keep the dream alive. Something in them won't survive without your obedience to God. Through Joseph, an entire nation was saved.
I can relate to Joseph on many levels. I'm sure many of you can too. Ask God for what you need to push through and realize that you life is in His hands! Man cannot kill what God has put in you.
Has God given you a dream that is dwindling away inside your heart? Have you laid things down that God never asked you to lay down? Remember Joseph; the challenges he faced were distractions. The destiny for his life was still there. He just had to push through. How many times to we face a distraction and say "okay, that's it, it's all over."? No! There could be hundreds or thousands of people who need you to keep the dream alive. Something in them won't survive without your obedience to God. Through Joseph, an entire nation was saved.
I can relate to Joseph on many levels. I'm sure many of you can too. Ask God for what you need to push through and realize that you life is in His hands! Man cannot kill what God has put in you.
“… You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result …” Genesis 50:20 (NIV)
1 comment:
What do you think, please, of Obadiah Shoher's interpretation of the story? (here: samsonblinded.org/blog/genesis-37.htm ) He takes the text literally to prove that the brothers played a practical joke on Yosef rather than intended to murder him or sell him into slavery. His argument seems fairly strong to me, but I'd like to hear other opinions.
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