How crazy was your Christmas? Just how dysfunctional are your family gatherings? Or maybe, there’s so much brokenness in your family, they don’t even gather anymore. Siblings don’t talk. People are uninvited. There are misunderstandings, blow ups and hurt feelings.

Or maybe your family dysfunction is hidden to everyone else. You show up in matching outfits, you smile for the photos, you fake the joy. The show is good, but behind closed doors, there’s a real problem. And through all of that, you think you’re alone. Those thoughts of being alone and singled out in a problem make you feel dismissed. But let me tell you something – you are singled out in a promise. You are set apart for a purpose.

In the middle of a dysfunctional family can be a single soul who God will use to change the trajectory of every future generation. The crazy doesn’t have to go away for that to become true. The problems don’t have to be solved for that to unfold. One thing has to happen – A single soul must decide to be different with God.

That person must trust God so completely that where they came from doesn’t become their destiny. That person must trust God so fully that what they’re going through doesn’t detour them from where they’re going.

The level of dysfunction that Joseph comes from is undeniable. His father, Jacob, was the trickster who stole a family blessing and birthright from his older twin brother. His grandmother, Rebekah, aided in the deceitful plan to steal that blessing. His uncle wanted to kill his father for many years, hunting him down to get even. Joseph is born into crazy.

I don’t know – maybe you were born into crazy. You come from a long line of quarreling, immorality, and jacked up choices. Maybe you come from a broken home with a painful childhood, and trauma is all you know. Well let me tell you something – trauma is not your tomorrow. Trauma may be part of your testimony, but honey, it is not your trajectory!

Joseph’s father had two wives and two concubines. Imagine that. Joseph is the youngest of 12 boys, all a bunch of half-brothers sharing the same father. But there was a clear favorite. Joseph was Daddy’s favorite. And clear favor over one child creates clear family fallout. Parenting 101 begins with showing our children the same level of love and attention. The one who feels like a black sheep will always wander.

Joseph’s parents didn’t attend that class. Instead, his Daddy made him a special coat and draped it over his favorite son. Favoritism didn’t only set him apart, it put a massive target of jealousy on his back.

Genesis 37: 3-4, “Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph – a beautiful robe. But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn’t say a kind word to him.”

This special coat we often call the ‘coat of many colors’. To understand this coat is to understand the problem. This was not a working man’s coat. It was a long coat of privilege. Wearing this coat, he would watch his brothers work hard.

Just how do you feel when you’re working hard and someone is sitting and watching you as if it’s your job to serve them? Not good. Especially in family.

And all of this dysfunction leads to Joseph’s brothers wanting to kill him. Life would be easier if he weren’t sitting in his fancy coat, being better than them in the father’s favor. They throw him in a pit, sell him to a group of traders traveling through, then took the special coat of favor, covered it in animal blood and convinced their father that Joseph had been killed by wild animals.

Guys – this is CRAZY.

And yet, this crazy didn’t limit God’s ability to work in this family. This dysfunction did not dismiss God’s desired destiny for a single one of them.

And your family dysfunction doesn’t dismiss your destiny either, my sister. The crazy you come from, or the crazy you’re going through doesn’t limit God’s ability to work in your life, nor does it limit his promises for your future.

The father’s favor created a real problem. Do you know why? Because the father’s favor of one meant a limit for the others. But this points us directly to the contrast of our Heavenly Father. Our Heavenly Father is unlimited in his favor. He can pour out his undeniable favor all over me, and still have an unlimited abundance of favor for you too. What he has done for me, he can do for you. And what he’s done for you, he can do for me.

When you see a soul that’s been saved, rescued, healed and redeemed by the mighty work of a loving Heavenly Father, here’s what your first thought needs to be – WOW, I SEE WHAT GOD DID FOR YOU AND I NOW KNOW HE CAN DO THAT FOR ME TOO! If he gave them a coat, he has a coat for me!

The enemy wants us to live divided with jealous comparisons, but God’s desire is for us to each to walk in his divine favor. With every evidence of his love, we receive it as proof of what’s possible in our lives with God. What God did for me, he can do for you. Let me tell you what he did for me – he put divine protection around me throughout my life, saving me time and time again from devastation and destruction. He healed my body and saved my life. He gifted me with years I shouldn’t have gotten, and here I am with another new year! He set me apart, changed me, called me, and equipped me. He worked behind the scenes to change every intended harm against my family into a story of glory – and he’s still doing that today!

God worked in Joseph’s life, taking betrayal and turning it into blessing. He turned delay into destiny. He took him from a prison and delivered him to a palace.

And what God did for me – what God did for Joseph – HE CAN DO FOR YOU!

You’re not alone. You are singled out in a promise. You are set apart for a purpose.

That person must trust God so completely that where they came from doesn’t become their destiny. That person must trust God so fully that what they’re going through doesn’t detour them from where they’re going.

Will that be you? Oh, let it be you! Then show others what God can do for them too!

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