The next few posts are from a 5 part devotional series I shared with our Kingdom Builder's team at church (before we transitioned it more to a community). It's pulling and tracing the thread found in the story of Israel and the exodus. While I'm posting these, I'm pulling at a thread that kept coming up as I've been reading the bible this past year and will hopefully be able to make a thread of posts (yes I said thread again) after this 5 part series.

Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. (14) But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.”
Genesis 15:13–14

We all probably know the story of God’s promise to Abraham, that he would be the father of many nations even in his old age; his descendants would be as numerous as the stars; that through him and his descendants the whole world would be blessed; that they would inherit a promised land from God. But did you know God also told him his descendants would be slaves in Egypt before they got to receive it? 

When we think of God’s plan, visions or dreams He gives us, we don’t like to imagine the hard times that will come as part of that plan being worked out. We hope for smooth sailing the whole time, but we’ve all experienced that there are challenges and hard times that come throughout that journey. Sometimes these are just part of growing so that we can accomplish the plan - no one who reached the top of Everest ever achieved it by just getting off their couch one day and going for a hike. We know to do great things also takes work and discipline (along with God’s grace, not instead of it). Other times they are just hard and unexpected, things that God wouldn’t wish upon us but are part of life with people and a world that feels the affects and weight of sin.

But part of our eternal hope is that God can and will use every situation for the glory and purpose of His plan. God told Abraham his descendants would be enslaved, but also that He would use this situation to make them stronger, to bring His justice, and to give them miraculous provision! 

No matter the situation you are in, as a Kingdom Builder, know that God will use every situation for good and His plan. As long as we keep our faith in God, keep holding onto His promise, and keep living the life God asks us to live today, we will come out of every situation with God’s miraculous provision to fulfil His plan. That probably won’t always look how we think it will, but it will always be more than enough for what we need.