Riches to Rags: The Story of Joseph

I'm reading through the Old Testament at the moment and keep being astounded by seeing how God moves throughout it. The way He acted on Sarah's behalf when Abraham's lies landed her in another man's bed. The way He appeared to Jacob who was running away from home to escape the punishment he deserved. The mercy He exercised on Judah when He slept with His daughter-in-law.

Right now I'm reading about Joseph, in Genesis 39. Jacob, Joseph's father is rich. Very rich. He amassed a lot of wealth working for his father-in-law (because God was with him). So Joseph has grown up fairly cushty (comfortably). We don't read anywhere before the slave situation about Joseph doing any kind of manual labour, and in fact, when he was out in the desert in his specially made coat (Jacob, his father, had commissioned a special coat for him because he was his favourite) he was only there to check on his brothers and report back, he wasn't even out there helping them!

And then all of a sudden Joseph finds himself working as a slave. Riches to rags. Everything he has ever known is gone...except God. (The following verses I am translating from my Svensk Folkbibeln Translation into English)

Genesis 39.1-2 - 'Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, one of Pharoah's officals and the commander of the guards had bought him (Joseph) from the Ishmaelites who had brought him. The Lord was with Joseph and in everything he did he succeeded. He was in the house of his Egyptian Lord...'

And then as if Joseph hadn't been humiliated enough, going from a wealthy, luxurious lifestyle to one where he was a slave, he gets accused of attempted rape and finds himself in prison.

Genesis 39.19-20 (Summation) - 'When Joseph's master heard..he became furious and put Joseph in jail...'

Genesis 39.21 - 'But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him grace and let the prison manager respond well to him.'

Genesis 39.23 - '...because the Lord was with him and let him succeed in all he did.'

I always think Joseph's is such an amazing story. He starts off like a big shot, gets dumped in a well, sold as a slave, accused of attempted rape and thrown in jail...but he ends in triumphant fashion. He ends up saving his entire family from famine...not to mention all of Egypt.

I like his story for a number of reasons:

1. God just seems to be with him all the time. And not only that, it says continually that he succeeds irregardless of where he is physically because God is with him. That's pretty cool. To be a slave, and be a success. To be in prison, but to still be a success and have special kindness given to you.
2. His prison background didn't stand in the way of God's plan for his life. God is so much bigger than our pasts. He is in the business of shaping big futures for people whose lives at one point looked hopeless.
3. No time is wasted time with God. Later in the story when Joseph explains the dreams of the two court officials in jail and they forget him when they come out, it seems like it was a waste. But God is always true to His promises, and when He says that all things will work together for the good of those who love Him, He means it.
4. His great beginning was only a shadow of his extraordinary ending. Yes, Joseph's life started fairly comfortably, growing up in a wealthy family, nice coat and so on, but at the end of his life he is governor in a land, second only to the king. In Christ our futures are so much richer than our humble beginnings. As CS Lewis once said 'There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.'

God has such great things planned for each of our lives that go way beyond our own needs, happiness and comfort and touch the lives of others. Sometimes we can be on our way somewhere great and it doesn't quite go how we thought it would...but it goes as He knew it would...and the best thing is that in those 'hopeless', 'wasted' seasons, He is most at work in the things we can't see preparing us for the futures He sees for us.

Psalm 37: Feeding on His Faithfulness

Psalms 37:3, 5, 7, 23 NKJV

"Trust in the Lord , and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness." (vs 3)

"Commit your way to the Lord , Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass." (vs 5)

"Rest in the Lord , and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass." (vs 7)

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way." (vs 23)

I am so grateful to God for Psalms! Such an amazing book. I particularly love vs 3 of this chapter:

"Trust in the Lord , and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness."

I love this. We are supposed to dwell in the trust of the Lord. Simply put, David is saying we should live in the confidence that God has everything covered.

Even better, not just live in the confidence that God has our back, but to feed on His faithfulness.

Making this as basic as possible, think about how often you eat. Typically a minimum of three times a day. Imagine, reminding yourself of God's faithfulness to you a minimum of three times a day. Constantly living out of the reminder of God's faithfulness leaves no room to doubt Him.

Granted, sometimes we doubt God has our back not because of His own unfaithfulness, but because of our own, but we don't need to. God's behaviour toward us has NOTHING to do with our behaviour towards Him. Psalms 73:1 says "Truly God is good to Israel, To such as are pure in heart" If we have accepted Jesus as our saviour, as our righteousness, then we are counted as those who are pure in heart, and God is good to them. Even when we fail, God doesn't; 2 Timothy 2.13 says "If we are faithless, He remains faithful, He cannot deny Himself."

David continues in vs 5 and 7 "Commit your way to the Lord , Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. Rest in the Lord , and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord , And He delights in his way."

He says we should commit our way to the Lord, to put all our plans into God's hand, and then trust Him to work it all out. He says we should rest in God, relax in Him, enjoy Him. We should be in a perpetual state of relaxation in God, patiently waiting to see what He's doing. Not worrying because we see things working out for others, but relaxing and resting and dwelling and feeding on the knowledge that God is directing and leading us and enjoys doing so.

It has been almost a year since I moved here, and I moved here without a job and without a place to live. It felt crazy, but I knew God wanted me here and had to take a leap of faith and believe that He would take care of me.

If there is one thing this year has taught me, it's that resting in God and feeding on His faithfulness really pays off. Even when we feel like we are wasting time, or going nowhere God is still doing His thing; fixing all the tiny details so we are ready for the next step and it is ready for us.

Too much has happened this year for me to summarise properly, but I want you to have a vague idea of what has gone on, so here's a rough timeline:

September 6th: Move to Sweden
End of October: Find an apartment but have no money to pay rent for the month
A week later: Get given money for rent and living expenses for the month
End of November: Start job as an au pair which gives me job and accomodation (Yes, I was unemployed for three months)
April: Start thinking about what to do when done au pairing
May: Get invited to live with two friends at the end of my job
June: Apply for school also phone a bar about a job, find out the owner is English, arrange interview
End of June: Go for an interview at school, get rejected. Realise it is not possible to move in with friends till a month after I finish my job
Following day: Get a call inviting me for an interview for another course at the same school
Following week: Go for interview at school again and go for bar job interview, successful job interview, invited for two trial shifts
Following day: Get accepted into school
A few weeks later: Get call from friends saying a friend of theirs has an apartment I can potentially stay in before I move in with them

This year has been all over the place, up and down and nothing I expected, but God has had and continues to have my back. I have not been without a place to sleep, I have not been dead broke. Truly, God has been faithful and ordered each and every one of my steps. I do not know what the future holds for me, but I know that as I continue to commit my way to God, He will continue to order my steps and sort everything out.

The Abundant Life

"Kristus har befriat oss för att vi ska leva i frihet. Stå för det! Låt ingen förslava er igen."

Galaterbrevet 5.1/ Galatians 5.1 (MSG)

Something has been weighing on my mind a lot quite recently to the point where it's been dominating my thinking, distracting me and worrying me. The root of it is the fact that I just don't seem to trust God with it, I've been enslaving myself to worrying about something that is out of my control when God has fully assured me He has my back in ALL things.

You ever done the same?

John 8.36 says that 'He who the son sets free is free INDEED." Jesus died for a lot of reasons, most importantly to make a way for us to have a relationship with the father, but He also died so we wouldn't have to live as the bible puts it 'in the way of the flesh'; struggling and failing daily as we try to do things in our own strength, but we could live in the way of the Spirit; knowing God is our strength and support.

Have you, like me, been living in your own strength, going back to the way of the flesh when God has empowered you for supernatural living?

If it's worry you're dealing with...tell Jesus about it and let yourself relax in the knowledge that He has it under control and knows what He's doing.

If it's something else...see what God has to say about it...but don't just return to the stressful earthly way of living. God wants us to live a better life, an abundant life, full of Him, full of hope, miracles and excitement, not to be sat at home rocking back and forth worrying about things that in reality we have no control over.

Trust Him and walk in the freedom He called you to, remember that He who the son sets free is free INDEED.

God bless x

Saying, 'I'm sorry'

I'm a bit of a romantic, and in order to kick back the other day I decided to watch Letters to Juliet. I won't go into the entire film, but I do want to draw something out to you from a scene within it.

The male lead is rude, and in the wrong, and his grandmother forces him to apologise to the female lead, looking her in the eyes and saying I'm sorry.

How often do we do that?

I remember doing so as a kid, if I was rude or mean or hurtful, being told to apologise sincerely, but I think somewhere along the line in adulthood we lose that practice.

Forgiveness and apology are vital parts of relationship. Why? Because in a relationship with someone you are close to, inevitably, at one point in time or another, one of you will upset the other. When this happens, there are two ways to move forward, either the one who was in the wrong apologises and the one who was wronged forgives, or the one in the wrong refuses to acknowledge their wrongdoing and the one who was wronged refuses to forgive and let go.

In my limited experience, the first way of action yields much better fruits than the latter, which leaves both parties bitter and resentful.

I think this especially important in Marriage. I can't help but wonder how many people might still be together today if they had sucked up their pride and done their part to resolve the situation. The problem is very often within each of us and not the other person.


"Where do wars and fights  come  from among you? Do they  not  come  from your  desires for  pleasure that war in your members?"

- James 4.1

"But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers! Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather  let yourselves  be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and  you do  these things  to your  brethren!"

 - 1 Corinthians 6.6-8