Daily Devotional - By Gabby Botts

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.”

As some of you might know, I attended winter camp at Thousand Pines with the junior high and high school group of our church a few weekends ago. It wasn’t the original plan, and I was a last minute fill in when the girls’ counselor got sick. In the spirit of being honest here, I will tell you that when Devin our youth pastor called me on that Friday afternoon to ask if I could go, I told him to pencil me in as a “last resort” if he couldn’t find anyone else to go. A few hours later I got the call that I was indeed...the last resort. I ended up having 15 minutes to pack a bag (I forgot a few things) and I was on my way packed tightly into a minivan with Devin and the teenagers heading up the mountain! Did I mention the theme of the weekend was “Messy”? How appropriate. I prayed to God I could put myself aside and be a vessel, used by Him to serve these kids in any way possible. Fast forward to the end of the weekend, and I know that God used the situation for His good, to accomplish His purposes, and we all ended up having an amazing time learning and growing together. Now, I by no means am implying that this situation was one in which someone “intended to harm me”--I don’t think Devin is that cruel ;). But it’s a very small example of a way in which I have seen God work lately, in a situation I didn’t ask to be in. This passage, which was the theme verse of the weekend, is about Joseph, and he certainly was thrown into several horrific situations through no fault of his own where people did try to harm him. His jealous brothers sold him into slavery, he ended up later being thrown into jail because his master’s wife falsely accused him of rape, he helped a man in prison be able to get out but then that man forgot all about him once he was free...I could go on. But through it all, Joseph never seemed to complain, never asked “why me?”, never lost his hope or faith in God, and (probably most impressive to me) never plotted or got revenge on his brothers for what they did to him. He says this verse to his brothers instead--”You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.” How powerful is that response?!

Many things may happen in our lives that are out of our control. This is, unfortunately, a part of life in a sin-filled world. What is in our control is what we choose to do about the situation we’re in, or the reaction that we have to our “mess” that we’re currently in. We might have to wait long periods of time until we see God’s plan and the good that can come from our struggle, like Joseph did. It might not make sense to us in the moment. What lessons can we learn from this “mess” in the meantime? Do we trust God enough to be patient to see the good that can come from the bad? It’s hard, for sure. The notes from the Life Application Study Bible says that having the kind of faith like Joseph did takes a lot of practice, like exercising a “faith” muscle which only gets stronger with time. The speaker at the camp said something that stuck with me: “God will write a beautiful story of your life, if only you are willing to give Him the pen.” While I was a little confused at first as to what the “pen” was in this case, I think it’s a metaphor for us always wanting to be in control of our destinies. May we all be a little more like Joseph was in this instance, hand over the “pen”, and flex our faith muscles! His ways are higher than our ways. Hope to see you all Sunday at church.

Gabby