*When I was young, I never understood how this story, or any story in the scriptures for that matter, would ever in a million years be applicable to me. I never could have imagined what God had in store for me, but even as I am still in the thick of it, I’m extremely grateful for my trial and the way it’s brought me perspective and growth.*
Genesis 45:7-8
Question
When circumstances in life don’t work out as we had hoped, and prayers seem to go unanswered, we often do not immediately recognize what God has in store. But, like Joseph, over time we can come to see how God has blessed us more than we had ever imagined.
When have seemingly difficult circumstances in your life turned out to be a blessing?
Scripture
7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
Genesis 45:7-8
Quote
In other situations, when our worthy desires are not granted in the way we had hoped, it may actually be for our ultimate benefit. For example, Joseph the son of Jacob was envied and hated by his brothers to the point that they plotted Joseph’s murder. Instead, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. If ever a person might have felt that his prayers were not answered in the way he had hoped, it could have been Joseph. In reality, his apparent misfortune resulted in great blessings to him and saved his family from starvation. Later, after having become a trusted leader in Egypt, with great faith and wisdom he said to his brothers:
“Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
“For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
“And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
“So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God.” …
I know that God hears our prayers. I know that as an all-knowing, loving Father, He answers our prayers perfectly, according to His infinite wisdom, and in ways that will be to our ultimate benefit and blessing.
Elder Brook P. Hales
Bethene Zetterquist Photography 