This was the title of my pastor’s sermon ‘I’ve been through this before’. What an incredible message and reminder.
He set the stage using Joseph’s time in prison. In Genesis 40, Joseph helped decipher the cup bearer’s dream. After he explains what the dream means and that all would end well, Joseph had one request: Genesis 40:14 ‘but when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of prison’.
Well, if you’re familiar with the story, verse 23 says ‘the chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; her forgot him’
(Insert sad face).
This was no ordinary forget. This was two years of being forgotten. In prison.
It wasn’t until Pharaoh had a dream that no one else in the land could decipher that the cup bearer remembered Joseph.
Two very long years (on top of the time he’d already been there).
Do you feel forgotten in a situation you are walking through?
Can you look back to a time when you can say ‘I’ve been here before?’ And be reminded how God brought you through?
Joseph had been left for dead and forgotten in a pit in his younger days. He had been forgotten. But God had rescued him. Not in the way that Joseph expected, but in the way that God would carry out His master plan.
May we all be able to look back and say like Joseph did in Genesis 50:20 ‘You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives’.
The lessons for me through this story:
God has not forgotten you. He’s walked with you through this situation before.
God does not intend to harm you.
God can use your situation and draw others closer to Him.
Father, thank you for these powerful reminders that while I’ve been through these situations before, I can clearly see your mighty hand in the midst of these situations and please remind me of the ways you have shown up in the past, and remind me that you are faithful and you can do it again.