What If God Can Still Use the Life You Didn't Plan? Part 2

Most of us are not living the life we imagined. But what if that unplanned, messy, redirected life is exactly where God is working? The story of Joseph in Genesis shows us that God does not just show up in the highlight reel. He is present in the pit, the prison, and the palace.

Where We Left Off: Joseph in the Dungeon

Joseph had every reason to give up. Favored by his father, betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused, and thrown into an Egyptian prison. By any measure, his life had gone completely off the rails.

And yet, Genesis keeps repeating something that seems almost impossible to believe given the circumstances: "The Lord was with Joseph." (Genesis 39:2, 21, 23)

Joseph did not wait for life to get better before he started living fiathfully. In the middle of chaos and survival mode, he held onto a simple conviction: God has put me here. God is with me here. So what can I do here?

How Do You Treat the People Right in Front of You?

In Genesis 40, two of Pharaoh's officials, his cupbearer and his baker, are thrown into the same prison as Joseph. The text says something worth pausing on: Joseph attended them.

Out of nine billion people on earth, when someone looks back at you, that is not random. That is an invitation. Joseph noticed the people around him. He served them. He paid attention to their faces.

When the cupbearer and baker were troubled by their dreams, Joseph did not walk past them. He asked, "Why are your faces so sad today?" (Genesis 40:7). He saw them.

There is a simple principle here worth practicing:

• If someone is 20 feet from you, acknowledge them.

• If they are 10 feet from you, engage them.

• If they are right in front of you, let them know they are seen.

What Does It Mean to Be a Meaning Maker for Others?

When the officials said they had no one to interpret their dreams, Joseph responded: "Don't interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams." (Genesis 40:8)

People today are overwhelmed with information and do not know how to make sense of it all. What if followers of Christ could be meaning makers for the people around them? Not by having all the answers, but by being present, attending to others, and pointing them toward God.

Joseph interpreted the dreams. The cupbearer would be restored. The baker would not. And before the cupbearer left, Joseph made a simple request: remember me. Mention me to Pharaoh. Get me out of here.

He was not pretending to be okay with where he was. He named it honestly. But he was not bitter. He was still faithful.

What Happens When God Seems to Be Doing Nothing?

The cupbearer forgot Joseph. Two full years passed. No miracle. No phone call. No explanation. Just the dungeon.

But here is what the season teaches us: God can be working when God appears to be doing nothing. Like underground roots preparing for spring, something is happening beneath the surface even when we cannot see it.

Do not reduce God to your current situation. God is so much bigger than the season you are in right now.

The question to keep asking is this: Jesus, why did you put me here? How do you want me to live here?

How God Uses Waiting to Prepare You for What's Next

Pharaoh has a dream. Seven fat cows eaten by seven skinny ones. Seven healthy heads of grain swallowed by seven thin ones. None of his advisors can interpret it. Only then does the cupbearer remember Joseph.

Joseph is quickly brought from the dungeon. And when Pharaoh says he has heard Joseph can interpret dreams, Joseph's response is striking.

"I cannot do it, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires." (Genesis 41:16)

This is his moment. And he deflects the credit entirely. Prison had taught Joseph something his early life had not. His future was not in Pharaoh's hands. It was in God's hands.

Your future is not in anyone's hands but God's.

What Is Stewardship and Why Does It Matter?

Joseph interprets the dreams. Seven years of abundance followe by seven years of famine. And then he does something remarkable. He does not just interpret. He offers a plan. Store food during the years of plenty so people can survive the lean years.

Pharaoh sees something in Joseph and asks, "Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the Spirit of God?" (Genesis 41:38)

The boy thrown into a pit is now running the country. The prisoner is the prime minister. And what does Joseph do with that power? He uses it for others. He stores grain. He manages resources. He saves lives. That is stewardship.

Stewardship is not just giving God credit when things go well. It is using what God has given you on his behalf, to honor him and to help others.

The question is not: how much do I have? The question is: what does God want to do through what I have?

What Has God Placed in Your Hands?

Consider what you have been given:

• A home that could offer hospitality or become a place of ministry

• Experience that a younger person desperately needs to hear

• Resources that could meet someone else's real need

• Influence that could open a door for someone who has none

• Time that someone needs you to simply show up and give

• A story that could remind someone they are not alone

None of these are accidents. They are not just things you possess. They are things you have been entrusted with.

Joseph named his two sones in a way that tells us exactly what he remembered. Manasseh, meaning "God has made me forget my trouble," and Ephraim, meaning "God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering." He was not pretending the past did not happen. He was acknowledging that God had redeemed it.

Can You Trust God When Life Is Good?

Here is the harder question. Most of us know how to cry out to God when things fall apart. But can you trust him when life is going well?

Success has a way of making us forget how dependent we are on God. When the palace comes, when the promotion arrives, when the money is there and the kids are doing well, do we still live as though God is with us?

God's presence does not disappear when life falls apart. And God's presence does not disappear when life gets good. We are the ones who change.

When life gets hard, we say: God, I need you. But when life gets good, maybe we need to say: God, I need you even more now. You are entrusting a lot to me.

Joseph in the palace was the same man as Joseph in the pit. The God who was with him in the dungeon was the same God with him on the throne.

Life Application

This week, look at your hands. Literally. Identify one thing God has placed in them, a skill, a home, a relationship, a resource, a story, and ask him: Lord, who could you bless through this?

The challenge is to stop asking God to bless what is in your hands and start asking God what he wants to do through what is already there.

Ask yourself:

• Stewardship is managing God’s resources, time, abilities, and blessings on His behalf to honor Him and help others. What is one thing currently in your hands that you have been treating as your own rather than as something entrusted to you by God?

• Joseph lived by the conviction that God had placed him where he was, was with him there, and had something for him to do there. How does that three-part mindset challenge the way you currently think about your own circumstances?

• When you make eye contact with someone, it could be God’s invitation to attend to them. How does that perspective change the way you think about everyday encounters at work, in your neighborhood, or even here at church?

• Matt said, “Don’t reduce God to your current situation.” In what ways are you tempted to define God’s goodness or faithfulness by what is or is not happening in your life right now?