Coffee Cup Confessions: Finding Hope Not Hype in Famous Bible Versesنموونە

Problem Proclamation

Every single one of us faces problems in this world. Outside problems can rock our faith and ruin our minds. Your serious problems might include:

• Economic uncertainties
• Job loss
• Illness
• Loss of a loved one
• Marital problems
• Parenting problems

You might be a grandparent who has a problem with how your kids are parenting your grandchildren. There are problems all around. But it's in the problems of this world that some of our greatest, most mature faith proclamations can come.

If there was someone that understood problems, it was Joseph. And yet, Joseph was able to offer our first coffee cup confession today. Look at 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.

Outside of Jesus, perhaps my favorite offering of forgiveness in the entire Bible comes from this man Joseph. Although Joseph was the 2nd youngest in a family of 12 brothers, he was the favorite of his father, Jacob. This made the other brothers, especially the older ones, extremely jealous. In addition, Joseph didn't help his own cause, often boasting about how his own brothers would one day serve him. Finally, after having enough, his brothers decided to sell him off into slavery. Then, they lied to their father, claiming that Joseph had been eaten and killed by a wild animal.

Joseph could have been bitter, but he just got better. He faithfully followed after God, but sadly, he found that others continued to mistreat him. Joseph is perhaps the only person in the entire book of Genesis that could be heralded as making the right sexual decision by turning down the seductive passes of a powerful woman. And yet, instead of being rewarded for this decision, the woman turns on him, lies about him, and Joseph ends up in prison.

While in prison, Joseph willingly helped his inmates, interpreting dreams for them. In return, Joseph asked that they would remember him when they got out. Sadly, Joseph was forgotten until years later.

Finally, after interpreting a dream for the most powerful man in the world, Pharaoh, Joseph was eventually promoted to second-in-command in all of Egypt. And you could argue, the Bible does at least, that Joseph was the most powerful man in the world because the Pharaoh did nothing without Joseph's approval.

So, more than 20 years after he was sold into slavery, with Joseph at the helm of a food distribution business in the middle of a famine, his brothers, yes, the same ones that sold him into slavery, are now at his feet. Having been that long since they'd seen one another, they did not recognize Joseph, but Joseph indeed recognized them. Amazingly, Joseph offered forgiveness to his brothers and reconciled with his family. But, the brothers thought Joseph only did that because of his love and respect for his dad.

So, when his dad Jacob died, the brothers were in fear, thinking that now Joseph would pay them back. He would now get his revenge on them. He had every right. And yet, Joseph could see right through this. Weeping bitterly that they still didn't understand who he was and how he felt toward them, he issued his problem proclamation.

Maybe like Joseph, you've been treated unfairly. You've had some things that haven't gone your way. Perhaps you did the right thing and still found yourself in the wrong spot. And while you are going through it, it seems God has left you. But did you notice that no matter what comes before the comma, there's a "but God" coming after? That's right, as big as your problems are, God's but is bigger than your problems.

There are a few chapters in the Bible reading plan today, but to get the full story of Joseph, read Genesis, chapters 37-50.