You will have experiences in life that will cause you to ask things like, "If God loves me so much, why would He allow me to go through this?" At times like these, you won't have the whole picture yet, but God will. That's why you need to create a little file in your mind titled "Waiting for further information."

That was a pretty big file in Joseph's life, as we've seen over the past several weeks. Joseph learned to view his life through an important lens: the fact that there is a sovereign God who sees all things, knows all things, and has a perfect plan.

When Joseph's father, Jacob, died seventeen years after the whole family had settled in Egypt, Joseph told his brothers, "As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive " (Genesis 50:20). In other words, "God sent me here. This was His plan all along, not mine. I wondered why all these things happened to me, but now I get it."

He was giving a Romans 8:28 statement of faith: "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." Joseph is probably the greatest biblical example of that verse. Whether he was in prison or prospering, he had that navigational pointer toward the Lord and His purpose.

In the same way, God will take everything that happens in your life--including every event that couldn't be good by any stretch of the imagination--and synergize it all for your highest good. So what is your limit to trusting Him? Job, in the midst of intense suffering, said, "Though [God] slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15). Do you say secretly in your heart, "I'll trust God as long as I enjoy good health or maintain my standard of living or this relationship works out, but if not, all bets are off"? What is your limit to trusting?

God won't always reveal His plan to you; you may not get the whole picture this side of heaven. That's when you put whatever you're going through in your "Waiting for further information" file. As life progresses, God will supernaturally coalesce all the natural elements of life so that when you look back, whether on earth or in heaven, you can say, "Now I understand what that was all about."

Even if you can't feel it or see it, God is working in your life right now. So put whatever you're going through in that file and see what happens. Happy is the man or woman who, like Joseph, trusts the Lord and His purpose in everything.