If only...

God had a plan, one specific plan: To save the people of Israel from starvation. And so He chose a man, at the time just a boy, for the task. He chose Joseph.

God chose him among all his brothers and gave him a dream as a sign that one day God would make him great and exalt him in his household. Since the time God chose him, everything went from bad to worse. He was envied and hated by his own brothers and if that wasn't enough, we was sold as a slave and sent to a foreign land, away from everything and everyone he ever loved.

He probably thought and prayed that someone would come for him, that that would not be his life. But no one came and no answer came. God seemed to be silent. The only good thing was that everything he did was successful, he was promoted as the overseer of his master's house. He finally had some peace and some respect out of the whole mess his life had become. He  was probably praying and planning a way to be set free from slavery so he could go back to his own house, to his father. Right when everything seemed to be working for him, life gave him another blow. 

He was accused of something he never did, nor did he intend to do. All he was trying to do was be right in God's eyes and live according to the principles he was taught. Because of that unjust accusation, he was sent to prison. Nothing ever really worked for him, what was the use... he tried to do everything right, he kept using his faith in God, but it didn't help him when he needed the most.

He was given more work and more responsibilities. Now he was the overseer of the prison... what a joke! What good was that to him?

"And whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper." Genesis 39:23

Again, what good was that, to have your work prosper when you can't use it for anything? When you are bound by your problems?

God still seemed to be with him, but not enough to take him out of that situation. But he kept his faith and his integrity and allowed himself to be used by God even knowing there was nothing in that for him. After helping two of Pharaoh's officers, he specifically asked one of them to remember him once he was out of prison and mention him to Pharaoh, so he could leave that place too. I'm sure he thought that was his chance, who knows if now was the time he would finally have his freedom... This is what happened:

"Yet, the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him." Genesis 40:23

Two entire years had passed and he was still there. I'm sure that the dream Joseph once had was now very dim, almost entirely gone from his memory, just a dream of a dream. Did he still have any hope?

But you see, all this was part of that first plan. How could God use someone greatly and give him a very serious responsibility if that person does not have any skills, or if he easily gives up on his faith, or if he leaves the principles of God as soon as there is any sign of trouble? He can't! And that's why God allowed Joseph to go through all that and He used every circumstance to shape and mold him into the man he needed to be to fulfill that plan.

Are you using your faith but have not yet seen the results you expect? Have you been trying everything you know to solve that problem you have but it's still there? Welcome to the club! 

It doesn't matter that you don't see the whole plan yet, it doesn't matter if you don't feel capable or appreciated. It doesn't matter if things don't seem to be working right now, it doesn't matter if you've tried before and failed. All that matters is that you remember the dream and you keep your focus on that. GOD WILL NOT FAIL IN WHAT HE PROMISED YOU, no matter how bad things seem to be right now. If you persevere in your faith and faith only, not what your eyes see or you heart feels, faith only, then like Joseph, you will have the realization of that dream, you will have what you've been fighting for all this time...

Or you can just accept things as they are, give up, rebel, follow what you feel and stay in that prison for the rest of your life, just wondering what it would have been like if only...