DetourSample

Introduction

Have your dreams or plans been dealt a crushing blow and suddenly come to a screeching halt? Has the size of the setback left you feeling like your dreams and desires will never become a reality? What you are experiencing has not taken God by surprise.

You may feel like all is lost (time, resources, opportunity), but it is not. You are on a detour. Your dreams are waiting for you. And you are still on track to live the good life God predetermined and made ready for you. This is what happened in the life of Joseph.

Growing up, the story of Joseph always fascinated me. He was his father's favorite child, wore a coat of many colors, had audacious dreams, and somehow became a governor of a foreign country.

However, a closer examination of his story not only reveals stalled hopes and dreams, but it emphasizes a life of progression and a journey of purpose filled with significant lessons from his experience as a seventeen-year-old sold into slavery by his brothers, as a housekeeper and an innocent man in prison serving time indefinitely for a crime he did not commit.

Detours are an inevitable part of our journey. However, we are rarely thrilled about going on detours because they are a different or less direct route to our destination. We all desire to arrive at our destination quickly, precisely as we envisioned and mapped it out. Anything short of that is usually viewed as being unsuccessful.

If you asked most people when Joseph became successful, they will likely say when he became a governor in Egypt. But the truth is, Joseph’s success happened every step of his journey, even in the least celebrated and unglamorous seasons of his life. In every one of his experiences, from the pit to the palace, the bible describes Joseph as successful.

How is it possible that Joseph could be committed, productive, and successful as a slave and a prisoner despite the glaring difference between his dream and his position as a slave and later as a prisoner?

He remained hopeful and did not allow his setbacks to prevent him from expecting and working toward a great future. He looked beyond his current state and realized that if God could give him a picture of the future, then God who knows everything would have seen his present situation ahead of time, and if God saw his current state ahead of time and still gave him the picture of a bright future (his dream) then his dream would become a reality.

The setback you experienced no doubt came to steal, kill, and destroy, but God will use it for your increase! The sting of your setback is nothing compared to the strength of your comeback. God is turning it around for you. He is directing your steps, and the detour will make you better.

Over the next 3 days, we will explore three truths to remember on a detour.