Overflow In The Hard Paths Sample

Overflow In The Pit 

Joseph was the eleventh son of Jacob the patriarch and was treated with special love and honor by his father, much to the disdain of his brothers. The favoritism shown to him added to the fact that Joseph was spiritually gifted, created a rift between Joseph and his ten older brothers. Joseph unwisely rubbed his dreams in his brothers’ faces on at least two occasions as mentioned in Genesis 37 and as a result is made victim to his brothers’ hate and jealousy. Joseph was then attacked by them and eventually sold to slave traders heading to Egypt. It’s interesting to imagine what would have happened to Joseph had he not been a favored son, had he been loved by his brothers, had he not been kidnapped and sent away. While we may never know the “why or what” behind this, the reality was that for Jacob’s legacy to be fulfilled, for Israel to be established as a nation chosen by God, Joseph had to move to Egypt. It was essential and integral to God’s plans for Israel. Joseph’s childish arrogance in repeating dreams that God gave to him personally, to a hostile family  pushed him onto the less scenic route towards his destiny. Today each of us has probably made unwise decisions at some point of our life. We may feel like we are in a pit because of foolish or unwise choices made in our past. We may have had to live with those decisions or we may have regret about those decisions. Either way, when we decide to make God the center of our life, we begin to see Him move those regrets and setbacks into detours and setups for us to experience his presence and his power. Nothing is wasted with God, not even the areas where we have experienced failure. The sign of living in the overflow is trusting God to fulfill his plans for us even when the road ahead seems lonely and long.