Are you willing to wait? part 5

The fact of our coming death can make us timid, or it can make us bold. Joseph said to the cupbearer: “Remember me.” It makes perfect sense. Joseph didn’t settle; He was faithful in prison, He was ready in prison, He was bold in prison.
 

What do you while you wait? Be faithful… Be ready… Be bold…
 

Verse 23 gives us the end of the story: “Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, he forgot him” CSB. That’s a bummer. Right?! After all that, the cupbearer forgets Joseph. But the reality is that happens all the time in life. We make promises we don’t keep. We intend to stay in touch, but we don’t. We plan to call an old friend, but we don’t. When the cupbearer got out, he promptly left the prison far behind.

Joseph must have had many questions: What if the cupbearer never remembers? What if I die in prison? What if I never get to clear my name? The truth is: The “What if’s” of life will kill you. What if I lose the job? What if he never asks me out on a second date? What if I never get married? What if we can’t have children? What if things don’t work out?  What if we run out of money? What if my husband makes a bad decision? What if I lose my job? What if our children get sick? What if I don’t get accepted? What if the chemo doesn’t work? What if he or she files for divorce? 
 

Put yourself in Joseph’s place. The only people who can help him think he’s dead, or they think he committed a vile crime, or they have forgotten him completely. What do you do then?

I believe it all depends on how big your God is. How big is your God when you’ve been: Betrayed? Enslaved? Falsely Accused? Imprisoned? Forgotten? Maybe you feel like you are living that out right now. Let me remind us all, God never hurries. Joseph’s experience in prison reminds us that God doesn’t keep time the same way we do. He is “from everlasting to everlasting” (Psalm 90:2). And “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8).
 

A. W. Tozer said it this way: “God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which He must work.” Friends, what I have learned is; God is bigger than the clock and He’s never in a hurry. He’s never late. He’s never behind schedule. Even though the cupbearer forgot Joseph, God did not.
 

What do you do while you wait? Wait on the Lord because, “those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint” Isaiah 40:31 NJKV. Your Redeemer is on the way. He’s just not working on your schedule.
 

This week’s study ends where it began — with Joseph in prison. Falsely accused. Unjustly imprisoned. Alone and forgotten. Apparently, he’s hit a dead end. This story is over, or so it seems. But let me remind us: the story is not over - and neither is your story! 

So let me ask the key question one more time: Are You Willing to Wait for God? END