I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! (Gen. 45:4)
Louis Zamperini spent a majority of World War II as a POW. His experience caused him to be consumed by hate after the war. It had permeated his entire being, leading him to lash out at anyone he felt had crossed him. The only solution, he believed, was to return to Japan, find his captor, and kill him. But instead of encountering his captor, Zamperini had an encounter with God. This encounter replaced every feeling of hate for his captor with compassion and a conviction that “everything happened for a reason and would come to good.”
Joseph’s life was filled with many encounters with God. Each encounter moved him closer to an unexpected destination of Egypt and to a position that could have allowed him the power to get revenge on his brothers. But when Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, God placed in him compassion, instead of a thirst for revenge, and wisdom to see, just as Louis Zamperini saw, “everything happened for a reason and would come to good.” Paul in Romans 8:28 wrote something similar: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Be encouraged; wherever we find ourselves, God can use the event to bring about his desired change in us, change that leads us to holiness.
Exercise faith by thanking God for what he will do.
T. J. Albertson has been pastoring for seventeen years, the last fifteen as interchurch service. He is a doctoral student at Wesley Seminary and loves teaching the whole Bible and its relevance to life.
© 2021 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
