The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon.

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to keep many people alive.”

—Genesis 50:20 

We don’t always enjoy the things that happen to us. 

Joseph certainly didn’t love being sold by his brothers, enslaved, and falsely imprisoned, but he lived there with honor and integrity. He acted in faith, though the sin of man and the nature of this broken world caused his hardship.

Sometimes things in our lives are unfair, objectively terrible, and nothing we would’ve ever chosen, but being depressed, bitter, unforgiving, or angry about the injustice of the situation won’t change things.

We don’t always get to pick what happens to us, but we can decide what we do while we’re there. 

We can grieve and ask God why while yet choosing to commit all our ways to him even in the darkness and uncertainty when we feel like we’re in prison and no one is on our side.

Joseph’s eventual release came simply because he asked two other prisoners why they looked sad (Genesis 40:7). Even in his suffering, he was still looking for ways to help others.

But he also didn’t just settle in and accept that suffering was his inevitable fate. When Joseph interpreted the cupbearer’s dream, he asked to be remembered to Pharoah, hoping for his release (Genesis 40:14). 

Joseph did the good he could where he had been placed while still working for a godly way out of a terrible situation and hoping for a better future.

The cupbearer forgot Joseph for two years (Genesis 40:23), but God never forgot and worked miracles through his circumstances, using even the evil acts for good, just as he promised (Romans 8:28).

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