“And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him.” Acts 7:9
September 2, 2026
There will be times in our lives when it seems as if God has hit us in the stomach. It may be a cancer diagnosis, a friend who ghosts us, a car rear-ends us and leaves you with a life-time of neck and back pain. Stephen’s sermon before the Jewish religious leaders contains five words about Joseph’s experience in Egypt that tell us volumes. When troubles came to Joseph by the truck load, God was accomplishing His purposes for him. It is then that we must not lose our spiritual footing. In those times when in ill health, or bad people saying and doing evil against us, then is the time to count on it that there is a bigger and better story taking place. And not only that there is the then in time, there is a time to come when seeming tragedy will give way to the then of being of the presence of Jesus. Stephen, “gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55). Do you not love that “when” and “then?”
H
Walking by faith:
Memorize 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.
How can these verses help me to live with the “when” and the “then?” ”