Sometimes we think God is delaying us, but in reality,
He may be developing us for a purpose we cannot yet see.
Often, it is only in hindsight that we recognize His provision.
Not only the provision He made for us,
but the work He was doing in us.
Read Before the Palace about Joseph’s journey.
Joseph’s story reminds us that God does not only prepare the destination.
He prepares the person.
Long before Joseph stood in Pharaoh’s court, God was shaping the tools Joseph would need to stand there well.
Before the palace, there was a pit.
Before authority, there was servanthood.
Before leadership, there was faithfulness in hard places.
Before Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams, he had served faithfully in Potiphar’s house and in the prison.
Genesis 39:21 says,
“But the LORD was with Joseph and extended kindness to him…”
Not only when Joseph was lifted up, but while he was low.
Not only when the story looked successful,
but when it was unfair, painful, delayed, and even forgotten at times.
God did not wait until the palace to begin working in Joseph’s life.
He was working in his youth.
In Potiphar’s house.
He was working in the prison.
He was working in the waiting, the despair, the hurt.
The tools being formed in Joseph’s life through those hard seasons were not small and insignificant.
God was developing leadership, wisdom, integrity, servanthood, compassion, forgiveness, discernment, and faithfulness.
What felt like unfairness and pain was actually God moving in Joseph’s life to accomplish a greater plan Joseph could not yet see.
Psalm 105:17–19 says of Joseph,
“He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They afflicted his feet with fetters, he himself was laid in irons; until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him.”
Joseph was sent before his family, but it did not feel like being sent for preparation.
It felt like being sold, abandoned, and surely it felt painful.
And yet God was working.
As I look back, I can see that God has done the same kind of work in me.
My own journey has been used by God to develop tools in me.
There have been seasons that felt hidden, unsure, questioning, and hard.
Seasons when I could not clearly see what He was doing.
Seasons when I wondered why the road looked the way it did.
And yet, as I look back now, I can see that God was shaping something in me.
He was sharpening the tools He had given me for a purpose He had prepared for me.
That is part of the heart behind this study of Joseph’s life.
His story teaches us that God is at work before we understand the whole story.
We are living one page. God is writing the whole story.
Joseph did not have the ending before he lived the beginning and the middle.
He had to walk through the pages one at a time.
So maybe today is a good day to ask:
What has God been developing in my life?
What qualities has He formed through difficult times, waiting seasons, or hidden places?
What tools has He placed in my box?
Compassion, integrity, leadership, wisdom?
What gift, lesson, burden, or refining season now makes more sense in hindsight?
You may not fully understand the season you are in, but that does not mean it lacks purpose.
You may not fully understand the gifts and tools God has placed in you, but that does not mean they are useless.
God is still shaping. Still forming. Still preparing.
You are living one page.
But God is writing the whole story.
And your story is not over.
God still specializes in beautiful endings.
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