Saved By Grace: When Grace Looks Like Pain
From Livestream
by Pastor Nave on March 18, 2018
And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt (Genesis 45:4–8, KJV).
Whether we like it or not, pain has a specific purpose in our lives. God designed humankind not only to experience pain, but to endure it both physically and emotionally. Although difficult, we cannot curse all pain that comes into our life. Pain can be what saves and delivers us—it can be the difference between walking into our destiny with God or missing it all together. Ultimately, pain helps us understand our need for God.
There is only one place we can take our pain and only One who can provide relief as well as an understanding of pain: Jesus Christ. He will teach us pain isn’t present to destroy us, but to save us.
In Scripture, we’re told Joseph was the favored son of Israel (Jacob). He was comfortable with his position in life. It’s during the times of comfort God chooses to move us. For us, when everything changes and pain steps in, we start to question the work of God’s hand. But, remember: sometimes grace looks like pain. At the end of Joseph’s story, he tells his brothers it wasn’t their hand that caused trials in his life. He recognized the root was in God (Genesis 45:8); the Lord had to move him into a different position to pour out blessings on his life.
Sometimes pain comes for no other reason than God showing us we need to (and can) trust Him. He has ordained a perfect plan in our life, and there are pieces that must come into place for it all to work. We cannot stay in control of our life—we must give it to God and trust Him. Joseph’s promise was to come into a place of authority. When circumstances unfolded in his life, it didn’t make sense to him, but he learned to trust God to bring the promise to fruition.
Joseph had control of everything in Potiphar’s house, but his wife tried to entice Joseph with an affair (Genesis 39:8). Joseph had tremendous integrity, refused her, and found himself cast into prison anyway through false accusations. Even after all he’d been through, the Spirit of God was still encouraging him to stay right, stay where he was at, and not give up. It’s easy to allow the enemy to convince us to stop trying, to give into our flesh, or not believe God has everything under control. We must remember during the times in our life when we feel we can’t take another step, grace is still present and working.
We’ve all faced a time when we’ve felt alone—when those who should be around to support us are nowhere to be found. When Joseph was thrown into prison, God allowed him to provide a dream interpretation for the Pharaoh’s butler. The butler was released, and Joseph asked not to be forgotten. But, years after the servant’s release, Joseph was still in prison (Genesis 40:23). There’s significant pain felt when it seems the world doesn’t care to pull us out of a world of darkness, but God’s grace is there shining a light. Grace, through pain, is working in spite of other’s actions.
There was a day when Pharaoh had a dream. God made a way for Joseph to be called from the depths of the dark prison to provide an interpretation. Pharaoh saw the hand of God on his life, and finally moved him into a position of power and authority. There were no random events in Joseph’s life on his journey to promise and power. God’s hand was in his life at every turn (Genesis 39:2, 21, 41:46). There are bigger things at work than the pain we’re facing. Don’t think the pain is judgment—it’s our deliverance!
