So there's this guy. Joseph.
Loved by his father. Hated by his brothers. Sold into slavery. Close with the pharaoh. Thrown in jail falsely. Stayed there for years. Forgotten while in jail. Once remembered came to reign.
Joseph should be so pissed, right? I would be! Sure take the good with the bad but he was just done wrong. Yet he didn't keep a grudge.
When revealing who he was to his brothers finally he says, "Don't be upset, and don't be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. IT WAS GOD WHO SENT ME HERE ahead of you to preserve your lives. IT WAS GOD WHO SENT ME HERE, not you!"
Sometimes I wish that I could respond in that manner. Joseph remained faithful to God for years and didn't blame his brothers for the hell we went through. He gives glory to God for placing him where he was. When people do me wrong, I feel like I blame them constantly. "Look what you did to me. I"m like this because of you, and I don't like you because of that."
Why do I find it so difficult to let grudges go? Why do I blame God when something minor doesn't go the way that I would like it to? Joseph was also human. Same flesh and blood that I have. Nothing special, but he followed Christ. He trusted in Christ. He basically is saying (from my understanding of this story) that God sent him through those trials & God is the one who gets the praise He deserves at the end of it.
That one verse just rocked my world today. I need to realize that God does have a plan for me. I'm not in jail. I wasn't thrown in a pit by my brothers and sold because I was hated by them. Yet I fall apart daily. I'm not putting Joseph on a pedestal, because I'm sure that while he was going through the valleys he questioned God the same way I do unfortunately.
I'd love to have that attitude though, of God sent me through this because of .... fill in the blank. My story is still being written, but at the end of it I pray I have that attitude. Not an attitude of, "Why did you do this, God? but God sent me here & praise His name for it!
