Week 6, Day 5

_{“Here comes the dreamer!” they said.  “Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father, ‘A wild animal has eaten him.’ Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams!”
(Genesis 37:19-20)}

As I have read over the story of Joseph multiple times in the last few months, this portion of scripture continues to impact me in a powerful way. I believe that God fills everyone with a dream. Dreams are ideas that call us higher. Dreams wake us up early, and they can make it difficult to go to sleep. Dreams can also drag you through some of the most difficult seasons in life.

Can you imagine how young Joseph felt when he woke up from his dream? He was excited to share his good news with his parents and siblings! Surely they would be excited and ready to celebrate with him. But...the family couldn’t imagine such a dream coming true. They were incapable of accepting that Joseph would rule over them. Joseph didn’t realize that suffering would be the guiding light that would lead him to the fulfillment of his dream. He would be hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, sabotaged by his master’s wife, betrayed, thrown into an Egyptian prison, and forgotten by those he helped. For thirteen years Joseph suffered because he shared his dreams with his brothers.

Then, after thirteen years of every kind of painful emotion, Joseph was promoted to the right hand of Pharaoh. They brought him out of the dungeon, shaved him, bathed him, gave him a hair cut, stood him before Pharaoh and when the gift of God did its work through him, Pharaoh was moved to give him the job of running the affairs of Egypt.

Joseph’s dream became his reality.

Don’t let anyone kill the dreams of God in you!

• What is a dream that God has placed in you? Can you identify the weight of your dream?

• Do you see the hand of God moving on your behalf in the midst of your pain?

• While in prison, do you think there were ever times Joseph wished he had never shared his dreams? Consider this: if he had never shared, he would have avoided the suffering - but he also would have missed the reality of his dreams coming true!