God's Perfect Plan and Perfect Timing

Note: I began this with some remarks about sending kids to camp and praying others go if they don’t.

It’s nice, if you can’t go, to pray for whoever gets that scholarship you would have had. But, go if you can. You’re bombarded by evil every day. Even in a Godly home, messages at school, through the media, etc. go against God’s perfect love, forgiveness, justice, etc.. The world’s system wants to ignore God.

Even without those, life is rough. Think how you felt reading about [A girl in our ministry who we had just learned was in a foster home at the time - please keep praying for her to sense Jesus' love, she made a profession of faith but was only with us a little while after that[ Even if you have never met her, it’s sad that a child has to go through that. (She’s 12 or maybe just turned 13 if that helps you pray.) I can’t give details – I don’t know them all anyway – but life can hit hard. When we know Jesus, we can pray for people like her. That alone helps a lot. God can give us ways to help – we’d never thought about sponsoring such kids to camp before I called and asked someone if it was possible with Kayzin and how. So, God may use this to help kids who might never have had the fun of camp or heard about Jesus.

This is where Gen. 50:20 comes into play. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery and bad, good, then bad, then good stuff happened. It was a roller coaster of things that could have made him bitter and discouraged. But, in the end, he saw how God had used all of it to help lots of people. But, to win in the end, he had to stay intbhe game. He had to keep his testimony even when those like Potiphar’s wife wanted him to lose it in Gen. 39. He had to listen and obey Potiphar and the jailor so they could see he could be trusted. It was when they trusted him that it got put in the position where he could be a witness.

So much happened that he had no control over. But God was in control. When Joseph told the baker and butler what their dreams meant (a good movie could be made about the palace conspiracy and finding out who tried to kill Pharaoh), the butler went back to the palace. (Sorry, yeah, that’s kind of a spoiler that the baker was guilty, huh?) He didn’t tell Pharaoh right away. He only recalled many months later, when Pharaoh had dreams like with the 7 fat and 7 skinny cows. But Joseph never lost hope. He knew God had a plan.

Sometimes, taking a stand means big things, lik eharing your faith. Other times, it’s in little things, like waiting for God to work. People need to see your patience as well as actions. Some verses, like “Be still and know that He is God” (Ps. 46:10), are hard because we want to act and make sure things are okay. It’s a natural reaction since we’re made to love work. Adam tilled the Garden before the Fall, and he loved it. It was all fun. Only in Genesis 3 did work gain rough parts. But we still want to act on things. Sometimes it helps to stop, think about the situation, and maybe just say “I’m trying too hard.”

God’s timing is perfect. At times, people fail - the butler ahould have told Pharaoh right away. Other times a wait is good, like in Esther when the king recalled at just the right time he hadn’t rewarded Mordecai for saving his life – he was reminded when he had trouble sleeping. Either way, remember to trust the Spirit’s leading in your own life so you can help others, but have patience when things aren’t perfect. It’ll encourage others to also be patient, and let you take advantage of the wait to grow and serve Jesus, like the time my flight was delayed for 30 minutes and I led a boy to Christ during that time who was on the same flight. We never know what God has in store.