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Joseph's Thankful Heart Overcame the Pain

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(Genesis 45:5 )

And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.

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The well-known Joseph had a lot of hard times.
Joseph's stepbrothers hated Joseph so much that they sold him as a slave to Egypt.

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In Egypt, Joseph had a hard time living as a slave.
But even in that land, Joseph believed God was alive and with that faith, Joseph managed to do everything very eagerly.

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The owner, Potiphar, saw the sincerity of Joseph so he appointed Joseph to be the manager of his house. But that time did not last long. By a false accusation, Joseph was sent to prison.

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Even though it looked to be a very hopeless situation, Joseph did not give up.
Even though he was in prison, he sincerely helped others.
Joseph was a very faithful person.

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Then, a miracle happened to this Joseph.
The king, the strongest man in the country, had a dream but all of the wise men in Egypt could not tell the meaning of his dream.

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The king heard that Joseph who was in prison could explain dreams so the king called for Joseph. God let Joseph know the meaning of the dream. That dream was about the 7 years of abundance in Egypt and the 7 years of famine that would come after.

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King Pharaoh thought that the right person to take care of the 7 years of famine was Joseph. In that place, the king raised Joseph to be the Prime Minister of the country. The Prime Minister takes care of all the work that needs to be done in a country. It was a miracle. Joseph who had been a slave became the Prime Minister of a great country, Egypt.

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Like the explanation of Joseph, there were 7 years of abundance in Egypt.
Egypt's wise Prime Minister, Joseph, made storages and stored up food for 7 years.

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After the 7 years of abundance, a great famine came to the whole world. The countries that did not prepare for the famine had no food. So those countries heard that there was food in Egypt so the people from the other countries went to Egypt to buy food.

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One day, an unbelievable thing happened to Joseph. Among the people who came to buy food, Joseph's brother, who had sold Joseph for 20 silver coins, came to Egypt to buy some food.

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Joseph had the power to put them in prison if he wanted to. Also, if Joseph had wanted to kill them, he could have killed them. But Joseph did not do such things instead he forgave his brothers.

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Joseph showed himself to his brothers and confessed like this: "I am your brother, Joseph. Don't be distressed for selling me here. God sent me here ahead of you to save the lives of these people. God sent me here to protect our family from this famine."

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Joseph invited his father, Jacob and his family to Egypt. They lived in Egypt happily. Through Joseph, all of the families received the blessing of not experiencing difficulties from the famine.

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The 13 years that Joseph went through after being sold as a slave were very painful years. But Joseph realized that God's grace that made him the Prime Minister of Egypt was so much bigger than all of that pain.

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We should also be faithful like Joseph. Even when you suffer unfairness and have hard times, for now, you should have the kind of faith that relies onto God like how Joseph did and work hard to live earnestly. God will surely help us overcome any pain and lead us to thank God in the end.