Genesis: The Story of God's FaithfulnessSample

HOPING IN GOD’S PROMISES

Listen to the audio guide to hear the complete devotional with Scripture, teaching and a worship song! Find a condensed, written version of this devotional below: 

It can sometimes feel hard to trust in God’s promises, especially when we’re in the middle of a darker season where we don’t feel much hope. However, God gives us his Word to provide us with proof that he does fulfill his promises! 

Joseph’s life in particular can be seen as a picture of God fulfilling his promises. Think back to the original Fall in the Garden of Eden. God announced his promise to bring restoration and to restore the effects of the curse brought on by sin. God then further unfolded his plan of restoration, making a promise to Abraham that in him, all the families of the earth would be blessed.

In Joseph’s life, we see the curse reversing, restoration unfolding and blessing abounding-all pointing to the fulfillment of God’s promises. Family conflict is transformed into forgiveness. Famine is transformed into feasting. The offspring of Abraham are growing and thriving. And Joseph is serving as a blessing to the nations. 

However, Joseph’s life is only a partial picture of the fulfillment of God’s promises. God ultimately fulfilled all his promises in Christ. In Christ’s death and resurrection came the complete manifestation of restoration and blessing. 

Because we have this evidence of God fulfilling his promises, we can trust that God will also fulfill his future promises to us. God has promised us that Christ will come again. At his second coming, he will make a new heaven and a new earth, and everything will be completely restored. There will no longer be any remaining effects of the curse. There will be no sin, no death, no pain or suffering. We will be made perfect, and we will rule over creation with God. God will physically come to dwell among us. 

We can confidently put our hope in these promises because, as we’ve seen through the story of Genesis, God is always faithful to his word, to his plan and to his people. 

REFLECT: Spend some time meditating on God’s faithfulness. Praise him for his faithfulness displayed in Genesis. Praise him for his faithfulness displayed in Jesus’s life, death and resurrection. Then, ask God to give you confident hope in his promises for the future.