Solutions February 2019 | Page 20

Serving While Suffering By Tony Evans Proof that you are on your way to your destiny when you are stuck on a detour is when God gives you a ministry to other people who are going through the same or similar things that you are. He gives you people to serve while you are suffering. After this, the Egyptian king’s cupbearer and baker offended their master, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard in the prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard assigned Joseph to them, and he became their personal attendant. And they were in custody for some time. (Gen. 40:1–4) 20 • Solutions Two of Pharaoh’s most trusted servants, his cupbearer and his baker, got in some hot water themselves. Since they were under the sentence of death, they were probably seen as part of an assassination plot to Pharaoh. Landing in jail, they came under Joseph’s care. Later on in the story we discover that these two jailbirds hold the key to Joseph’s destiny. But before God would ever use that key to unlock anything in Joseph’s life, he first wanted Joseph to help these two men. Joseph had to learn to look beyond his own misery and see how he could be used to help others before God would promote him to his ultimate kingdom assignment. The tendency when you are suffering is to be self-absorbed. It’s a normal tendency in all of us. If you