“And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.” (NIV)

You know that scene in movies where it’s a life or death situation, and the hero and the heroine are standing at the edge of a cliff/building/waterfall or hanging from a vine/rope/helicopter and the bad guys/zombies/dinosaurs are coming?? It looks like the end, like there’s no way out, and the hero turns to the heroine and says, “Do you trust me?”  

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It’s pretty clear to those of us watching that they are going to have to jump or let go in order to survive, and the hero wants the heroine to take a leap of faith. Usually, we as the viewers of the story can’t see how things are going to work out, but we think the hero must have a pretty good plan (or the heroine loves him a lot) because she almost always takes the leap.  

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In Pastor Cody’s sermon last week, he said that part of what’s hard about extending forgiveness is that, like taking that leap of trust, forgiveness can feel like giving up control and putting your life in someone else’s hands. In some situations, forgiving or not forgiving may seem like the only thing we have control over with the person who has wronged us. But when we are seeking to extend forgiveness to another human, we must fully trust in the only One who can truly save us, our sovereign God.  

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Sovereign, although it’s a word we don’t use much, means to possess ultimate power and authority. So, how can our understanding of this attribute of God help us to freely and fully forgive?

We see in today’s passage that Joseph trusted in God’s sovereignty. He trusted that God had ultimately brought him through suffering to a place where he could save his whole family from a famine. This view of God allowed him to forgive when he could have turned his family away and punished them for their horrible treatment. Joseph chose to take the perspective that all the awful things he went through was God “sending him ahead” for God’s good purposes.  

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There may have been times in Joseph’s life, like when he was in the pit or in the royal prison, where he heard God ask, Do you trust me? Do you trust me to bring you through this valley to the other side? Joseph got to see the happy ending and experience God’s faithfulness to bring healing and restoration to his family. But even if we don’t see the resolution or the justice in the hurts and conflicts in our lives, we can trust that God knows and is working through them all. Our good God is in control, and he keeps all his promises.

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The Gospel Coalition says, “The sovereignty of God is the fact that he is the Lord over creation; as sovereign, he exercises his rule. This rule is exercised through God’s authority as king, his control over all things, and his presence with his covenantal people and throughout his creation.” We are not putting our lives in the hands of some nice guy or girl we met at the beginning of the movie, or even a beloved parent or friend. We surrender our lives to the Creator of the universe who loves us. What is more, as we live this out practically, we recognize we really don’t have control to begin with. We put our trust in God, and we take the leap because we agree that he is ultimately in control and worthy of that trust.

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Where in your life are you withholding forgiveness because you want to maintain the illusion of control? How can you more fully put your trust in God to work out the situation? Ask God today to show you where he is working and how you can put your faith in his sovereign plan.

Holy and sovereign God, we acknowledge that today we can fully trust in your good and perfect plans. God, we see only a tiny fraction of the big picture that you see. In our humanity, we want things to work out a certain way. Forgive us for when we don’t trust you to make things right, when we withhold forgiveness as a way to get revenge, or when we don’t ask to be forgiven because we are too proud. Like Joseph did, help us to see our hardships as part of a bigger plan you have in mind for us and your purposes. We love you and turn our entire lives over to your lordship again today. In your Son’s precious name we pray, Amen.