DAILY WORD
Genesis 50:20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to keep many people alive.
I have been reading in Genesis since the beginning of the year. These families that we read about in Genesis make me realize that God's grace was needed for them just like it is for us. It is always good to remember that the names we read in Scripture are real people with real problems. The context of this verse is that Joseph's brothers had sold him into slavery. Joseph had eleven older brothers. Their father, Jacob, seemed to love Joseph more than the others. He gave him a beautiful coat that signified him as being the future leader of the family (something that was normally given to the oldest). Naturally, the older brothers became jealous.
To be sure, I understand the jealousy that can come with having a younger sibling. They really are SPOILED. I have seen it time and time again. If you are the youngest, you were probably spoiled. Your denial of that doesn't change anything! 😜
Now I obviously don't agree with the brother's decision, but they faked Joseph's death and sold him into slavery. Fast forward several years, and Joseph was in a position where his older brothers desperately needed his help. Instead of holding a grudge against them, he helped them. They couldn't understand and expected Joseph to treat them very differently. But because Joseph had the right perspective - "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good", he chose to help them.
The enemy is attacking. There have been several negative things that have happened to people in our church family recently. It can be easy to look at these circumstances and highlight the negative. But we need to remember two things: 1) We don't know the outcome. We wish we had 20/20 vision, but we don't. That is why hindsight is 20/20. Because we usually look back on something that seemed horrible, and we see the good that came out of it. 2) God has a plan, and will take care of us. God used Joseph and his ability to interpret dreams to forecast a seven year famine. His gift and his willingness to use it despite his unfortunate circumstance saved a lot of lives. In the middle of the mud, he trusted God. Then once he got through it, he was able to look back and see God's hand on the entire situation.
Trust Him today. No matter what you are going through, know that He has a plan.