I have never been a great artist; although my mom may disagree. Sure I can look at a picture, copy out a rough representation and when I am finished you can tell what I have drawn. Sometimes however I have gotten discouraged in the middle of my artwork and given up; leaving nothing but a mess of shapes and lines. It would be hard for anyone to distinguish what I was trying to portray with the scribbled mess, because it is not finished.
Sometimes we find ourselves in a difficult situation; our whole world seems to be crashing in on us. The bills are due and the collectors are calling, the car is out of gas, we are low on food and daily essentials; we fear we may lose everything. We start to question within ourselves “Where is God?” and “Why hasn’t God liberated us from our situation?” We take a look at the picture of our life in the current state and we cannot figure out what is going on; it just looks like a big mess!
In the latter part of Genesis you will find the story of Joseph (Gen. 30:24 to Gen. 50:26). It does not take long to find out that Joseph had it rough. He was hated by his brothers who thought about killing him, but instead sold him into slavery. He was sold to Potiphar whom he served well, until Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph; he ran away from the temptation but was falsely accused and thrown in prison. He then helped interpret a dream of liberation for a servant of Pharaoh, whom promised to mention Joseph when he came before Pharaoh; he did not. It was not until two years later when Pharaoh had a disturbing dream that the servant remembered Joseph. God then blessed Joseph and gave him favor with Pharaoh; putting him over all of Egypt Egypt
It would have been easy for Joseph to have looked around while sitting in the prison and thought there was not hope; his life seemed to be one horrible situation after another. He probably wondered why he was continually punished when he had not done anything wrong to deserve such punishment. However, Joseph remained faithful to God throughout all his trials; and after they had passed he saw what God had been doing all along. God had a purpose for every step of his journey and used every situation to bring him toward His goal (Rom. 8:28 ); to be used by God to save his family and all of Egypt
We so often forget that we serve the same God that brought Joseph through his trials, to fulfill a greater purpose. God likewise has a great purpose for each of our lives. We may go through trials that we do not understand, but in retrospect they will make perfect sense. Remember we serve the God of infinite wisdom and foresight, and He has laid out a plan for our life. If we will follow Him we may find ourselves: hard pressed, but not crushed; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed (2Cor. 4:8-9). Our life may seem like it is in total shambles and there is no hope; it is then that we are looking at a life and a purpose that is in progress; God simply is not finished yet!
