Why does this trial not seem to end? It seems like any time I get a break the legs (as it were) are kicked out from under me. It’s like I go one step forward and take two steps back. Why is it so hard? Is my time or opportunity to shine or accomplish God’s will going to happen? It is so impossible to believe, but is God so cruel that His promises and desires for my life some big “keep away” game?
There are hearts like this and this was the heart of Joseph. Never will he accomplish anything. Never will his heart mend toward his brothers. Never will he see his father. His heart ached. Pain breathed out from the depths of his being when he begged of the cupbearer, “But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house” (Genesis 40:14). And like us, he was forgotten and continued to eat pain for breakfast and sorrow for dessert.
Where and when will our help come? When will it be my time? When will it be my family’s time? When will it be my church’s time? God comforts us with His encouraging promise in Psalm 105:19, “Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him”. The King James Version ends with tried him. That word tried (H6884) means to refine, purify, melt, or purge away. The New Living Translation ends that verse with “…tested Joseph’s character”. Thomas Paine quipped in The Crisis, “These are the times that try men’s souls…that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.” Psalm 30:5 ends with, “weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning”. James the Lesser said, “…count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:2-4). James continues this in his final chapter, “My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed we count them blessed who endure” (James 5:10-11). We shudder and kick against these verses because we incorrectly believe that God will allow or take us to or through such great lengths. A heathen, let them suffer we may charge, but us?
But the Living Bible says it best of Psalm 105:19 at the beginning of the verse, “until God’s time finally came”. God’s time. It was God’s time for Abraham to have the promised son. It was God’s time for Joseph. It was God’s time to send Jesus Christ into the world to save us. It was God’s time to resurrect Lazarus. And it is or will be God’s time for us. We have His promise on that.