Be prepared

The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials. So Pharaoh asked them, ‘Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?’ Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace and all my people are to submit to your orders.  Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.’                           Genesis 41: 37 – 40

When Joseph woke up in prison on that life changing day, he did not know that by the end of it he would need a 14 year plan to save Egypt from famine.  He may have been confident that if asked to interpret dreams, God would give him the interpretation.  Certainly when he was brought from the prison to the palace he had no problem acknowledging that ‘God will give Pharaoh the answer (to his dreams) he desires.’  And God did. 

However having interpreted the dreams, Joseph then goes straight into the plan to conserve food during the 7 good years and store it up in barns to help the nation through the 7 years of famine (Genesis 41: 33 – 36).  That is not the sort of plan that Joseph would have had in his head in case such an opportunity arose.  That plan was developed on a much smaller scale during the years of servitude in Potiphar’s house and during the years in prison.  This is where he learned to be ‘discerning and wise’.

Joseph had learned his lessons well and knew the voice of God so that when a nation saving plan was needed, he could come up with it.  We have seen before that if Joseph had harboured a resentful, bitter heart to his circumstances he would never have learned the necessary lessons to save not only Egypt but his family in Canaan.  He had served faithfully and well and when the call came for him to take his place of destiny, he was ready. 

We may never be required to come up the kind of plan that Joseph did but we too need to be ready for whatever God may ask of us.  We never know what each day will hold but if we are ready it will be full of God opportunities to serve and to share the love of Jesus in many situations. 

We prepare by focusing our lives every day on God and by serving faithfully in whatever situation we may find ourselves.  Joseph had to learn to trust God is some very unpromising situations with just some dreams from many years before to sustain him.  We too can trust God with our lives.  He has our best interests at heart and as we focus on him and trust the Holy Spirit to guide and lead us on a daily basis, we too, like Joseph, will be ready.