What's with all this prep time? I just want my dream fulfilled!

What in the world is happening to my dream?

Wait.

What is going on here?

Is this a pit?

How did I get here?

Surely this is a cruel, but short-lived joke my crazy brothers are playing on me.

Reuben!

Judah!

Somebody!

Anybody??

Can you hear me up there?

The joke is over, fellas. This pit is getting uncomfortable.

Whoa!

Wait just a minute.

Things are getting seriously out of hand.

Are you kidding me?

My brothers just took 20 shekels of silver from the Ishmaelites and now they are handing me over to...slavers!

Wait!

Hold on!

I have a dream.

I have a dream from God Almighty!

In my dream, my brothers are bowing down to me, not selling me off as a slave and laughing as I'm carted off to Egypt.

Surely, I'll wake up tomorrow to find this is just a bad dream.

Nope.

This is real.

I've just been purchased by Potiphar as a slave and assigned duties in his house.

God, how did this happen?

What did I do?

How can You let this be my story?

I'm guessing these questions and more raced through Joseph's mind as the carefree life he once knew radically changed in a matter of moments.

We know good things are coming for Joseph, but he didn't.

All he knew was that his world was turned upside down and the dreams he had - the dreams he thought were from God - appeared to be impossible in his new set of circumstances.

Maybe you relate with this part of Joseph's story.

I know I do.

More than once God put a dream in my heart and delays made me question the dream and Satan tried to get me to question the dream giver.

Dream prep and dream fulfillment rarely look anything alike.

When discussing circumstances we view as delays, Christine Caine offer this encouragement...

"God is preparing you for the thing He has prepared for you."

This is exactly what happened in Joseph's life.

He had received a dream from God - two of them, in fact.

Although the dream was intended for Joseph, Joseph was not yet prepared to carry the responsibility of this dream fulfilled.

Most of us take our dreams and run straight for the much-anticipated Cinderella style ending we have attached to our dream.

All goes well.

We live happily ever after.

Cue the music!

God's thoughts and ways are much higher than ours and He has a specific call for each of us.

We each have a story that coordinates with His Story on the earth.

There are good works He has prepared for each of us to do (Ephesians 2:10) and now He is busy preparing us.

Back to Joseph...

God took the very things that seemed unfair and unjust and used them to develop Joseph into the man he would need to be when his dream was fulfilled.

As Joseph faithfully served in Potiphar's house, he grew.

Joseph learned the skills required for running a household - something that wasn't required of him much back home in Canaan.

As Joseph learned to manage an entire household complete with fields, he also learned to manage himself.

When seduced by Potiphar's wife, he refused to sin.

This godly decision landed him in prison.

Yet another unpleasant turn of events.

But once again, from prison, he learned further management skills.

He also learned compassion.

Upon seeing the baker and cupbearer looking depressed, he inquired about their sadness.

He didn't have to do that to complete his duties.

Joseph went beyond the basics and did more than was required.

He learned to care for others and even interpreted dreams for them while his own dreams continued unfulfilled.

During Joseph's prep period, we see God grew him in three areas:

• Management/leadership skills

• Character

• Patience

Surrendering to the Process

Joseph had a choice during this season.

Joseph chose to surrender to the process God was using to prepare him for his dream.

In this surrender process, we see Joseph...

-Let go of pre-conceived dream-fulfillment ideas

How often have I worked out a pre-conceived plan for God to use in fulfilling the plans, purposes and dreams He put in my heart? I readily admit God has never one time taken me up on my offer of assistance. I doubt He has done that for you either and surely He ignored any designs Joseph presented to Him.

God works in His way and His timing to fulfill His purposes and His will in our lives.

-Cooperate with the learning process

Joseph could have chosen the highly favored road of bitterness.

How many have been lost along that road when God didn't fulfill their dream instantly?

Despite not knowing why (a favorite question), Joseph applied himself to learn how to run a household and a prison.

Everything he learned about managing projects and people would be needed when God put him in the palace!

-Trust God's timing

How many of us have failed to reach dream fulfillment due to our lack of patience?

If we don't trust Him, we will not wait on Him.

Waiting requires faith.

God is honored by our faith in Him as we wait on Him.

Joseph's surrender to the preparation process allowed God to form in him the skills, character, and patience he would need when dream fulfillment came.

Our Turn

It's the same for us.

When we find ourselves in the middle of the prep time, we may be asking God - "Hey, what happened here? You gave me a dream and my current reality looks nothing like the dream I imagined."

Let us bravely and humbly surrender to the process while waiting patiently as God develops us and leads us to the day He fulfills our God-given dreams.

Many blessings,

Kathy Ann