Read: Acts 7:9-10
“Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.”

Reflect:
This passage in Acts is part of Stephen’s speech to the Sanhedrin.  One of the things they had accused him of was blasphemy against Moses and God. Stephen responded by telling the biblical story not in terms of commandments and temples, but in terms of promise and fulfillment, of prophecy, and the challenge to obedience.  He started with Abraham and told the leaders how God’s rescue plan was fulfilled despite human flaws and rebellious acts.  It was always by God’s might, his power, his grace and his initiative. I love the words “but God” for it shows that circumstances never get the last word.  These words appear in various forms hundreds of times in the Bible.  Casey Lute, who wrote a book that focuses on nine of the most important appearances of this key phrase states “To the left of `But God’ is hopelessness, darkness, and death. But to its right, following `But God,’ readers of Scripture will find hope, light, and life.”

Pray:
Take Ephesians 2:1-8 for example, looking at what comes before “but God” and what comes after and praise Him for it! “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”