“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good …” (Genesis 50:20)
We live in a world we have little control over. More things happen to us than by us. What control did Joseph have over the way his father treated him with favor, or his brothers treated him with envy and malice? His life was one of being swept up in a river of events moving toward God knows where.
The saint of God is often perplexed. What is going on? Why has my life turned out this way? Where is God in all this? Paul himself spoke of being “perplexed, but not in despair” (2 Cor. 4:8). Like Joseph, the one thing Paul did know was that his God was working all things together for good. Included in “all things” is the evil men do to us, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
The path our lives take is so often a great mystery to us. “Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?” (Prov. 20:24) It is not for us to understand how God is interweaving every event in our life to bring us to the glorious destination He has in mind. At all times, may we rest in the sure knowledge that He knows where He is taking us, and nothing we go through will go to waste.
“But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10)