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■ Pray together: Give thanks for your experiences, ask God for help where you need it.
■ Pray together to learn new things about God and that your relationship with God deepens and gets stronger.
Genesis 39
1Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
2The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.3When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did,4Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. 5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. 6 So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
Now Joseph was well-built and handsome,7and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”
8But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”10And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.
11One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. 12 She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.
13When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house,14she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed.15When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
16She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home.17Then she told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. 18 But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
19When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger.20Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined.
But while Joseph was there in the prison,21the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.22So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.23The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
1 Peter 1:6-7
6In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.7These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
■ Tell each other what you want to put into action in the following days.
■ To finish, pray in pairs and express your trust in God with what you have read and what you want to hold on to.
God uses adversity, problems, pressure, stress and difficulties to form your personality. Be aware that suffering and persecution are a symptom of the battle we fight in the spiritual realm (Ephesians 6:10-12). We cannot choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we react to it. If we choose to react as Jesus did – with faith, trust, resilience, forgiveness and devotion to God – then we will experience how God uses the situation to make us more like Jesus, rather than making us bitter. It is your decision whether a situation will become a stumbling block or a stepping stone on your way to spiritual maturity.
Joseph didn’t trivialise those years of adversity and neither should we. But he decided to react to hardship and trial according to God’s heart. Through that, he learned to trust God’s promises, to serve people, to stay sexually pure, to forgive and to wait for God, who then continuously put him in positions of responsibility and power. So he could say retrospectively, that all things truly work together for our good (Genesis 50:50; Romans 8:28). What could help you to keep the right perspective, if you‘re facing adversity?
Forgive people who are guilty of, or at least complicit in causing your problems. If you feel like you should forgive someone, you can find tips in the specific questions and scripture comments of the unit “Growth through forgiveness”.
Keep a spiritual journal, asking yourself the question: “What did I learn from God today?” Note down what God tells you and hold on to it.
Keep a spiritual journal with the question: “What did I learn from God today?” Especially in difficult situations and when you’re under pressure, it is important that you hold on to God’s truth and proclaim them so you can hear them, i.e. say out loud what God truly is like and what He’s capable of doing, even when you don’t experience it and can’t see it with your physical eyes at the moment (Ephesians 6:16). Read John 8:31-32. What are the requirements to be set free?
Remember: what you are going through will eventually pass. God orchestrates seasons and times and lets them finish according to His Will. And even if it is something you have to endure all your life, it stands in no comparison to eternity. God will reward you eternally if you stick to His truth and trust Him (2 Corinthians 4:17). Ask God to give you His perspective from eternity on your situation.
Surround yourself with good friends and pray with them. Even Jesus needed friends: Matthew 26:38.
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