There are three plans that can be at work in our lives :
1. Our own plans.
2. Other people’s plans toward us
3. God’s plans for us.
If we are without God, we will do our own plans, we will do whatever we want to do. Also, others will do their own plans to us, they will do whatever they want to do to us, and we will be easily influenced or affected by them.
If we are with God, instead of doing our own plans, that is, whatever we want to do, we can allow God to do whatever He wants to do in our lives. Also, though others may still do whatever they want to do to us, but with God we will not be easily influenced or affected by them if we know how to respond to them.
Our own plans are very limited, God’s plans are without limit and other people’s plans are generally against God’s plans because the devil is often behind them.
What is the purpose of God being with us? That we may know His plans for us and that we may give up our own plans and work with God so that His plans will be fulfilled in our lives. Fulfilling the plans of God means we become what God wants us to be in our lives.
If we want to become what God wants us to become in our lives, the first thing that we need to do is to give up our own plans. When we are willing to give up our own plans, God will begin to reveal His plans for us. The Lord Jesus said, “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Mat 16:25) If we are not willing to give up our own plans, we will never know and find God’s plans for us. God’ plans for Joseph is greatness, that he would become so great that even his father, his mother and his brothers would bow down before him.
After we have given up our own plans and have found God’s plans for our lives, the devil will begin to use other people to destroy those plans. After Joseph had a dream of God’s plan for his greatness, his brothers planned to kill him and he was thrown into a pit and eventually sold as a slave in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh.
The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority. So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and in the field. However, one day, he was accused of trying to rape Potiphar’s wife and consequently was thrown into prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing.
Even though his brothers as well as Potiphar’s wife tried to destroy him, the Lord was with Joseph because he did not commit any wickedness or sin. Moreover, Joseph also kept his heart undefiled, he was not angry with God nor with his brothers nor with Potiphar’s wife. He could see the hand of God behind what happened to him. After God set him free from the prison and made him a ruler of Egypt, he told his brothers, “So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.” (Gen 45:8) He understood that whatever men did to him after he embraced God’s plans for his life was God’s hand in making him what God wanted him to become.
The second thing that we need to do if we want to become what God wants us to become is to treat to whatever other people do to us as God’s process. We see what other people are doing to us as parts of what God is making us to become. Therefore, we do not resist or rebel against the people, but we surrender to God and love them. By doing so, whatever people mean evil against us; God will turn it around to mean it for good (Gen 50:20). In Joseph’s case, his brothers threw him into the pit, Potiphar’s wife put him into prison, but since God’s plan was for him to be in the palace, everything evil done by people toward Joseph was just God’s process of making him a ruler. Both pit and prison are the places that brought him to the palace.