Praise God in the Storm: Life Learned from Joseph’s Circumstances

This Bible study is all about how to praise God no matter what situation you find yourself in.

There are so many examples in Scripture of those who have chosen to continue to praise God even in the storms of life. This Bible study takes a look at the life of Joseph and how He continued to praise God in the midst of questionable circumstances.

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The Question: How do you react when tragedy strikes?

What happens when life throws you a curveball? What is your reaction when everything seems to be going according to plan, and then BAM! Something completely out of left field catches you off guard?

For some, maybe it’s being stuck in college for another semester because you didn’t take that one fitness class freshman year. For others, maybe it’s losing your job of 15 years because we have a pandemic. Maybe it’s a miscarriage, or a parent dying. Whatever the situation is, how do you react?

A Christian’s response should be to praise God

As Christians, our response is to praise God. It’s crazy and hard, I know. 

It’s easy to praise God when the good things are coming… when you are about to graduate college and you are admiring all of your hard work. Or when you just get the promotion you really wanted. But when tough times come? How do we praise God then? And how can a loving God actually ask us to praise Him? Doesn’t He know how unrealistic that is?

Well, I think God does know how hard it can be. When life doesn’t go the way we planned, our initial inclination is to have a bad mood about it. It can ruin our entire day, or even our week. But God, when He created the world, knew that you would be walking through this situation. And although He may not have planned for this particular derailment in your life, He has plans for the best in your life. Jeremiah 29:11 says that “God knows the plans he has for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

This is one of the most popular and most quoted Bible verses. But sometimes it doesn’t feel real. How can a loving God call you to something and then it falls apart? The very next verse in Jeremiah says “THEN you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all of your heart” (Jeremiah 29:12-13). So the question changes from why is God allowing you to go through something painful, to how do you seek God in the midst of pain and chaos.

Joseph’s Story

In Genesis 37-50, we find Joseph, who, through no doing of his own, was his father’s favorite. Because of decisions made generations before him, his brothers hated him (Genesis 37:3-4). After Joseph had some dreams (and bragged about them to his brothers) his brothers decide to sell him into slavery. Because of someone else’s actions, Joseph’s plans for himself come to a screeching halt. However, Joseph stuck with God. 

Joseph’s life can be divided into 5 main points of hardships.

1. Sold into Slavery

The first account we see of Joseph remaining faithful to God occurs right after his brothers sell him. He is sold as a slave to Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials. The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian Master. Joseph’s master saw that God was with him, and as a result, Potiphar benefited and his wealth increased. So Potiphar put Joseph in charge of his whole household. 

2. Gone to Prison

After some time, Potiphar’s wife saw Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”

But because Joseph was walking with God, he knew the difference between right and wrong, so he refused. This made Potiphar’s wife angry, so one day while they were alone in the house she tried again, saying ‘come to bed with  me.” Again Joseph refused and ran the other direction. 

So Potiphar’s wife made up a lie about Joseph, and she told her husband that Joseph was the one trying to get her in bed.

When Potiphar heard this, he threw Joseph in prison. 

3. Waiting on God

But even in prison, Joseph stayed with God, and the Lord was with him. Again, in prison, the warden placed Joseph in charge of all those in the prison. Again, Joseph was elevated to a position of authority because he remained in relationship with God. Joseph chose to praise God even in prison.

After a while, Joseph met two prisoners who had dreams no one could interpret. But God used Joseph to interpret the dreams, and all Joseph asked in return was for the man to remember Joseph. 

Nothing would happen for a long time. Joseph heard no news from the outside world. He felt forgotten… and he was forgotten: by the prisoner who was released, but not by God.

4. Being Elevated

After TWO full years had passed, Pharaoh, the leader of Egypt, had a dream and no one could interpret it. The cup bearer finally remembered Joseph and told Pharaoh about it, and Joseph was brought before Pharaoh. 

Joseph gave all the credit to God for interpreting the dream, and as a result, Joseph was again placed in charge of all Pharaoh’s palace. No one in the kingdom was greater than Joseph except for Pharaoh 

5. Forgiving Others

Joseph was 30 when Pharaoh put him in charge of everything. Joseph presided over 7 good and prosperous years, storing away and getting ready for the 7 years of famine. 

When the famine did come, Joseph’s own family needed to go to him to ask for grain.  When Joseph saw his brothers he said to them “do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God” (Genesis 45:5-7)

How to Praise God

Joseph stuck with God through all of these various trials that he encountered. At any point he could have easily said “life sucks, it’s not going the way I planned and I’m going to close myself off to God and others. I am going to protect myself and put up walls so that no one can do this to me again.” But… he didn’t. He kept praising God. Even when he had every right by our human standards to turn away from God, Joseph continued to praise God. There were so many times that Joseph could have given up. There were so many times that Joseph could have done what would come so naturally, and just ignore God. Not curse Him, just not acknowledge Him. But Joseph chose to do the hard thing. 

How to praise God when it’s hard

Praising God isn’t always easy. Sometimes we don’t even want to want to praise God. But we make a conscious decision to say “God, you know what you are doing. Even though I don’t agree with the circumstances that I am seeing, I give it to you, God. I give you my trust, I give you my faith, I give you all of my uncertainties about you being a good father. I give you everything.”

We need to talk to God when we feel ourselves not wanting to, letting God know how we actually feel about whatever the situation is. Then we need to give it over to God. We need to let go of the control that we seek to have, and we need to praise God. We know that He has been faithful in the past, and He will be faithful again. Just as God brought Joseph through countless bad circumstances, God can bring you through yours. 

Following Joseph’s example of praising God

And at the very end of Genesis, we see Joseph’s brother come up to him and throw themselves at his feet, saying “we are your slaves now”. But Joseph said to them “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 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).

When we give ourselves over fully to God, when we surrender our will and praise him, He draws us closer to Himself. He aligns our will with His, allowing us to bless other people we may come across. We can have peace knowing that God is in control over everything. We choose to praise Him even when we cannot see how a situation will turn out for our good. That is what it means to have faith. 

How you can choose to praise God in the storms of your life

Hebrews 11:1 says “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” We can not always see how good will come out of the situation we are in, but we can trust that God is in control as we fix our eyes on Him (Hebrews 12:1-3). When we look to Jesus, we are not consumed by our circumstances. Since we are no longer consumed, we can choose to praise God through anything the world throws at us.