How was 2021 for you? For many of us it was a tough year. Was there a time when you felt that God had completely deserted you? Were you falsely accused, tried and convicted? Did you suffer through an illness? Did you lose a loved one? Was your heart broken? Did your business fail? I can go on an on, but I want to pause and remind you that God was and is with you just as he was with Joseph.

Genesis 39: 2-5, states that Joseph was blessed as a result of the Lord’s presence with him, and that the blessing was contagious, and extended to Joseph’s boss.

Most often when we think of God’s blessings we picture a life of ease and the absence of strife or suffering of any kind. But is that really a true picture?

Let’s look at Joseph’s life a little closer. In the same passage that says that God was with him, the Bible says that God blessed Joseph’s master. I know I used boss above, but Joseph was sold by his brothers, so that made him a slave. He was owned by his ‘boss’ while God was with him.

In vs 21-23 of the same chapter, the Bible again says that God was with Joseph, then it continues to explain that “the chief jailer put Joseph in charge of all of the prisoners”. No interpretation needed there, Joseph was a prisoner, in a jail cell.

Let’s linger on those two for a moment and ponder the implications. Joseph was a slave, and later became a prisoner after being falsely accused, but ‘God was with him’. Can you even wrap your brain around that reality? It goes against everything we subconsciously believe about blessings and the presence of the Lord.

Today as you reflect on the difficult year you just walked through, I want you to accept that God was and still is with you. Not because you feel it, or because circumstances suggest it, but because His word declares it in Matthew 28:20; Isaiah 41:10; Isaiah 43:2; Hebrews 13:5; John 14:16 and many other verses.

As you progress through this new year, note that Joseph’s process took him from a pit, to slavery, to a prison, then to the palace of the king. Whatever your process is, know that God’s plans are for your benefit and not your ultimate demise as Jeremiah 29:11 says.

I love how Joseph sums up his journey in Genesis 45:4-8, “Come closer to me,” Joseph told his brothers. When they had done so, he said: “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. But now do not be distressed, and do not be angry with yourselves for having sold me here. It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you. The famine has been in the land for two years now, and for five more years cultivation will yield no harvest. God, therefore, sent me on ahead of you to ensure for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance. So it was not really you but God who had me come here; and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, Lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.”

We sometimes have a microscopic view of all that we experience, but for this new year a want to encourage us to broadened our sights: see the bigger picture, and understand from God’s perspective, (yes, ‘you have the mind of Christ’,) why He leads us through certain paths and allows certain circumstances to befall us. Let’s ask Him to give us sight to see the bigger purpose, just as Joseph did.

Isaiah 43 has always been one of my favorite scriptures to read. Here’s what vs 1b -3a says, “Do not be afraid…You belong to me. You will pass through deep waters. But I will be with you. You will pass through the rivers. But their waters will not sweep over you. You will walk through fire. But you will not be burned. The flames will not harm you. I am the Lord your God.”

These verses speak of an ability to experience natural phenomena in a supernatural way. It doesn’t say there won’t be fires and floods, just that when it comes to you, they don’t have the usual, expected impact. Do you get the depth of that revelation? “Fires don’t burn you and floods don’t overcome you.” What’s happening around you doesn’t have the ability to halt or disrupt your God assigned purpose.

When I think of Job and Paul and all that they endured, I’m again reminded that just as with Joseph, God is with each of us and His plans for you are perfect and will be fulfilled.