A Prayer for Good Purpose in the Place God Has You

Four months out from scoliosis surgery, one month before a son’s wedding, and nowhere near where recovery was supposed to be by now. The vision of dancing the night away in joyful celebration had quietly given way to the reality of significant physical limitation. And the question that settled in underneath the disappointment was a familiar and honest one: what good could possibly come from this?

Joseph’s answer to that question, spoken to the brothers who had sold him into slavery and left him for dead, is one of the most stunning declarations of God’s sovereignty in all of Scripture. After years in a pit, in prison, falsely accused, and forgotten — he looked at the people who had meant him harm and said: you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish the saving of many lives. And then he asked the question that reframes everything: am I in the place of God? He was not asking rhetorically. He was acknowledging something profound — that every place he had been, including the pit and the prison, was precisely where God had him. He was always in the place of God. That perspective did not make the suffering lighter while it was happening. But it produced a peace in the process that would have been impossible without it. That same perspective is available in every disappointing, uncomfortable, and confusing season — not because we can always see the purpose, but because we know the One who holds it. Whether the good is for us now, for us later, or for someone else entirely, it is always good. We are always in the place of God.

If you enjoy this episode, check out Keri's latest book, Win Over Worry: Conquer What Shakes You and Soar With the One Who Overcomes. You can find it on Amazon or your favorite online retail site.

Bible Verse

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

— Genesis 50:20, NIV

Ponder Today

We are always in the place of God — in the pit, in the prison, and in the unexpected limitation. Joseph’s declaration was not that his suffering was good, but that God had purposeful placement in every single location his life took him. That same truth extends to every season we find ourselves in. God’s good purpose does not always reveal itself in the moment. Joseph could not have seen from the pit what God was building toward. The good was real, but it was not yet visible. The same