willing to wait for the dream…

what about the test of destruction?  what happens when it seems like the dream has been wiped out?  everything that you were building on to make this dream happen GOD knocked all the cards down.  what do you do then? 

you ask yourself the question, “am i willing to wait for the dream?”  then you ask, “how long?’  the answer is time to the test of destruction.  usually GOD’s dreams take some time to fulfill.  they’re not very often instantaneous things.  they take time to fulfill.  when it seems like there’s no possible way for this dream to happen in your life, GOD has you right where HE wants you.  that’s the very moment HE can show us it’s HIS dream done HIS way in HIS power and no other way.

if you’ve got a GOD-given dream it’s going to face tests.  guaranteed.  one of those greatest tests is really waiting for the dream. that time in between when you’ve had the dream, you’re excited about the dream, you’re building towards the dream, and the dream falls apart – waiting, waiting, waiting…

before we talk about joseph waiting for the dream in genesis 39, we’re skipping a chapter.

genesis 38 is a soap opera chapter of the bible.  it’s the story of judah’s family, a son named er who was so evil before the LORD that he was killed.  he had a wife named tamar.  according to the custom of the day the second son onan was to marry this wife and he refused to do so.  he disobeyed GOD.  he died.  judah ignored tamar.  and tamar became so upset by this that she dressed up as a prostitute and she enticed judah.  she sinned.  judah sinned.  he went for her enticement.  she got pregnant with her father-in-law’s children.  this is the bible? 

two things:  first of all, amazingly judah, the son of jacob, eventually becomes the son through whom the line of david and then JESUS come.  amazing how GOD takes and uses even our sinful world and through HIS forgiveness and grace is able to be at work.  that never ceases to amaze me.  i wouldn’t have done it that way.  i would have chosen one of those other sons.  joseph would have been a good choice.  he was doing pretty well.  but GOD chose judah. 

but there’s another thing.  while all this is happening up in israel which is supposed to be the main place of GOD’s will being done, down in egypt there’s a boy named joseph and there’s a dream being molded.  when you and i look at the world around us or even what GOD’s people are doing, it doesn’t seem like what GOD wants to happen is happening in a place. but GOD’s still at work.  down in egypt he was doing something amazing as joseph was waiting on the dream.

just a thought from the front porch…