Devotion

Joseph spoke these words after years of betrayal, false accusation, separation, and loss. He did not call what his brothers did good. He named their evil plainly. Yet he also testified that their sin had not been strong enough to cancel the purpose of God. The Lord had been at work through every painful turn, preserving life and preparing Joseph for a responsibility he could not have imagined in the pit or the prison.

This verse does not tell us to pretend that painful experiences are easy. It tells us that God is not helpless in the presence of them. He can bring wisdom out of confusion, humility out of success, compassion out of sorrow, and a new future out of a season that seemed wasted. What another person intended to damage may become part of the testimony of how faithfully God kept you.

Joseph could forgive because he had learned to view his story under the larger hand of God. Today, you may not understand the whole purpose of a difficult chapter, but you can place that chapter before the One who sees its ending as clearly as its beginning.