My oldest daughter and her family took a recent vacation to the Florida panhandle. They had originally thought about staying a full week, but had decided to cut that timeframe short by a couple of days. It turned out to be a good decision or else they would have been facing the onslaught of hurricane Isaias. Meanwhile my other daughter and her family likewise had a trip planned to that area. They would normally have left on the Saturday when the effects of that storm were being widely felt. However, due to someone else using the condo, they had been forced to wait a few days later to begin their vacation. Again, this resulted in their missing being in the middle of that messy weather event.
Delays, changed plans, or circumstances not working out the way we had hoped can be frustrating. However, sometimes God gives us glimpses into how He may have been protecting us or otherwise working situations out for our good when we didn’t realize it. Maybe, like me, you can think of times when you were unable to get started on a trip at the time you had wanted. It may have irritated you at the time. But when you got down the road, you came upon a bad accident. It made you wonder that if you had left your home when you had planned and desired, might you have ended up in the middle of that accident? Had that frustrating delay actually been a God-directed blessing? Some such scenarios we can only speculate about. We don’t really know. Yet in other cases we can look in hindsight and clearly see how the Lord was watching over us.
Let me make it clear that I am not referring to some vague sense of fatalism or of some unnamed cosmic force at work. It is more than just the often-heard sentiment that “I believe everything happens for a reason.” It is good to be aware that there are powers beyond us that are at work in the world. However, we also need to recognize who that power is and give Him the credit He is due. There is a personal God who is in control. And at times He graciously chooses to act in ways that protect us from harm. He may frustrate our plans or allow obstacles in our path as a means of helping us to avoid some harmful situation.
I wonder if Joseph ever felt frustrated about his circumstances. I imagine that he must have. He didn’t deserve being sold into slavery by his envious brothers. Later, when trying to do the right thing in relation to his master and the inappropriate advances being made to him by his master’s wife, Joseph ends up being thrown into prison. Even there, after helping out one of the king’s officials and asking for assistance in return, Joseph was forgotten by the man and left to continue to suffer in confinement. However, God was working through it all to get Joseph to the place where he would be made a ruler in Egypt and be the means of saving his family. What Joseph later told his brothers could have applied to all of his challenging circumstances he had faced: “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (Genesis 50:20).
What frustrating challenges or delays are you experiencing? When our plans are changed, when our hopes are delayed, when our situations aren’t going the way we had wanted, let’s keep believing that God has a reason for it all. He is working all things out for the good of those who love Him. We can trust Him.
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