Not Like This

Y'all. I feel God so strongly in this moment. I just got home from church and I feel my breath again. First Lady delivered a right now word just for me. Crazy thing is I was worrying about how I was going to get this week's devotional out this week because I didn't have anything. I had so much going on personally and I knew for a fact that my mind was way too cloudy to hear from God. 

I've written from this story before, but God has given me a new revelation and I have to share it with y'all. 

Genesis 37:1-4 New King James Version (NKJV)

Joseph Dreams of Greatness

37 Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a [a]stranger, in the land of Canaan. 2 This is the history of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father.

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.

Now the first time I wrote about this, I wrote about how Joseph's brother's hate was misdirected. That very well may be true, but perhaps their hate was in the right direction. Sometimes people hate you because of your potential. Joseph's brothers saw that Joseph was special. They saw how people responded to him. Clearly, people weren't responding to them in the same manner, and it angered them because they knew he was going to do great things, and there was nothing they could do about it. 

Genesis 37:5-28 New King James Version (NKJV)

5 Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more. 6 So he said to them, “Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: 7 There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.”

8 And his brothers said to him, “Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

9 Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.”

10 So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?” 11 And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Joseph Sold by His Brothers

12 Then his brothers went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem. 13 And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.”

So he said to him, “Here I am.”

14 Then he said to him, “Please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well with the flocks, and bring back word to me.” So he sent him out of the Valley of Hebron, and he went to Shechem.

15 Now a certain man found him, and there he was, wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying, “What are you seeking?”

16 So he said, “I am seeking my brothers. Please tell me where they are feeding their flocks.”

17 And the man said, “They have departed from here, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.

18 Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him. 19 Then they said to one another, “Look, this [a]dreamer is coming! 20 Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!”

21 But Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands, and said, “Let us not kill him.” 22 And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their hands, and bring him back to his father.

23 So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. 24 Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it.

25 And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a company of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry them down to Egypt. 26 So Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh.” And his brothers listened. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.

If don't remember, the first time I wrote about this in "Keep it to Yourself," I wrote about how Joseph had these dreams about who he was to become. Let's stop right there. Think back to when you were a kid and when people would ask what you wanted to be when you grow up. I don't know if y'all were anything like me, but when I answered that question I could literally see myself in those positions. When I got to college, I had a plan. By 25, I wanted to have both of my degrees, be married with at least 1 child. Now here I am at 26, I just graduated with my masters, unmarried, and no children. There seemed to be a disconnect between what I saw, and what actually happened. I went through hell after I graduated from undergrad. That was definitely not part of my plan, just like being thrown into slavery was not part of Joseph's plan, and then he was lied on (Genesis 39). 

We never know what God's plan for us is. He shows us a glimpse of our future, but He never shows us all the steps. So keep going, keep progressing, keep your mind stayed on Him. Because the minute you take your mind off Him, you'll start to reevaluate and you'll begin to think that you're in something bad because it's not going the way you think it should be. Remember, what the devil meant for evil, God turns around for your good, and all things work together for the good of them that loved the Lord. God has the final say and He knows what the outcome will be. 

He knows that everything is not going to always be easy. In fact, for some of you, He knew the moment that you prayed that prayer that you were going to have to go through some things, but if you really truly desired that thing you would work for it. Just stick it out even if you didn't think it would look like this.