Be aware

Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer. But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison.
- Genesis 40:13-14
 
Joseph interprets the cupbearer’s dream and delivers good news. The man will be released from prison and restored to his high-status position.
 
What relief must have flooded the man’s heart! What joy when the dream came true!
 
How would Joseph be rewarded? He asks for a pharaonic pardon. Instead, we read in v. 23: “The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.”
 
What do we do with that turn in the story? Good deeds and good efforts sometimes go unrewarded. Cracked doors slam closed. Hope fades.
 
But God was still there. The cupbearer left the prison, but God stuck with Joseph. This opportunity may have ended, but Joseph’s hope wasn’t in his opportunities but in the God who made them possible.
 
Joseph knew that God gave that cupbearer that dream. He believed it and he saw it come true. He may not have fully understood God’s purposes, but he knew God was at work.
 
That awareness of God’s activity can boost your God-confidence. And that may be exactly what you need to get through a season when you’re forgotten.
 
How can you cultivate a deepening awareness of God’s activity in and around your life? What disciplines might you explore?

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