God's Presence in Trials

 Most of us want God to deliver us from every trial and pain of life, but He doesn't do that every time we ask Him. Sometimes, He goes through the trial with us and delivers us through the trial, instead of from the trial. We all need to remember this, and Joseph is a great example. He was falsely accused of rape and thrown in jail. (Genesis 39:20,21) God's presence was with him in the jail, and God was kind to him there. He gave him favor with the chief jailer. Then, Joseph was put in charge of the jail by the blessing of God, just as he had been put in charge of Potiphar's household. I pray we can all learn from this.

When God saves us through a trial, we are never alone. He is with us. We can turn to Him for strength and encouragement at any time. God is even kind to us during that time. He is not punishing us by allowing us to go through the trial, but He wants us to learn from it and grow in Him by trusting Him more. Therefore, as we are faithful, like Joseph was, we receive favor from others, and we even have good things happen to us while continuing to go through our trial. The key is trusting God and remembering that God's goal for us is to become like Jesus, not just to be happy and pain free. Trials knock off our rough edges and help us to be conformed to Christ's image, so they are really good for us, not bad things at all.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Genesis 41-43.