📅 November 15, 2025
🌾 Joseph – A Faith That Carries Through
Devotions from the Life of a Dreamer with Character
🏛️ 18.From Prison to Palace
When God Elevates – In His Way and In His Time
📖 Daily Bible Verse
“Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the pit. […] You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command.”
Genesis 41:14, 40
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👣 Introduction
The morning began like every other in prison. The light was dim, the air damp, and the sound of the guards’ footsteps announced nothing more than another routine round. Joseph expected nothing new. He knew the rhythms of darkness by now.
But on this day the footsteps sounded different – quicker, firmer, more urgent.
“Joseph! Get up! Pharaoh is calling you!”
Within moments, everything that had held him fell away: the chains from his wrists, the heaviness of the prison from his heart. He was washed, shaved, newly clothed, and led out – out of narrow walls into the spacious halls of the palace.
The journey from darkness to light happened in minutes, but the journey to the heart of a leader had taken years. And when Joseph stood before the most powerful ruler of that time, he said only:
“Not I – God will give you an answer.”
These were not the words of an ambitious man but of a matured servant.
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📜 Devotion
When Joseph stood before Pharaoh, he looked like a different man outwardly – yet inwardly he carried the whole story of his years with him. In that moment, his mind might have wandered back to the day he told his brothers about his dreams. Back then his words may have carried a touch of youthful immaturity. The promise was real, but his character was not yet strong enough to bear it.
He might have remembered the moment when his brothers grabbed him, threw him into the pit, and their distant voices echoed above him. That moment taught him that people could be unreliable – but God never would be. The first deep wound in his life was not followed by a rise but by being sold into slavery.
Perhaps memories of Potiphar’s house passed before him: the long hallways, the responsibilities he carried out with faithfulness. He had proven himself there and flourished – until a lie destroyed everything. Yet even in the fall, when he was condemned unjustly, God kept working. The faithfulness he learned there became a foundation.
And then the prison – the darkest place, but also the place where his faith became strongest. There, where no one sought his gifts, he used them. There, where no one comforted, he comforted others. There, where doors remained closed, God opened his heart. The years in hiddenness had not prevented his leadership role – they had prepared it.
Now he stood before Pharaoh. Not as the desperate man he once had been, but as one shaped and stabilized by God. And so he could say:
“Not I – God will give you an answer.”
This was not the sentence of a false humility but the confession of a man who had learned that all elevation comes from God – and never by human effort.
And when Pharaoh appointed him the second most powerful man in the land, one thing became clear:
The years in the depths had prepared him for the heights.
The prison had enabled the palace.
The darkness had shaped his light.
God exalted Joseph not because the moment was ready –
but because Joseph was ready.
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💡 Thoughts for your heart
God does not need ideal circumstances to lift you up – only a prepared heart.
He does not lead you out and then shape you.
He shapes you in the depths so He can use you in the heights.
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💎 What we can learn from Joseph
Elevation rarely happens suddenly – preparation almost always.
God’s timing may contradict our logic, but never His wisdom.
Deep faith is not formed on the stage but in the hidden place.
Whoever gives God glory when they have nothing will give Him glory when they have much.
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👣 Practical steps
Be faithful in the small things, even when they seem insignificant.
Remember that God’s doors open without human help.
Cultivate humility – it prepares your heart for responsibility.
Stay teachable, especially in difficult times: God writes His most important chapters there.
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💭 Questions to reflect on
Where in my life am I still “in the prison,” even though God is preparing me?
What does my trust look like when circumstances speak against me?
In which area is God calling me to faithfulness – even without visible success?
Am I ready to be elevated when God chooses the moment?
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🙏 Prayer
Lord,
you see my paths – even the ones that are dark.
You know my dreams, my wounds, my questions.
I ask you: shape me as you shaped Joseph.
Prepare my heart for what you have planned.
Give me faithfulness when I’m weary,
humility when I am tempted to exalt myself,
and hope when I still wait for your timing.
Guide my steps.
Keep my heart close to yours.
And when your hour comes,
open the door no one can close.
Amen.
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🔑 Key thought of the day
God lifts up always in His time – and never without prepared hearts.
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🌿 Blessing to close
The Lord who brought Joseph from the depths to the heights
walk with you on every path.
May He strengthen you in seasons of preparation,
keep you in seasons of testing,
and lead you into the tasks
for which He created you.
And when the day comes
when He opens the next door before you,
may you step through it with courage, humility, and trust.
Amen.
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