Life Audio

A prayer for the difficult people in your life by Tiffany Tabalt, read by Leah Martin.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about

that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

Genesis 50-20

We all have them in our lives, difficult people, people who make life hard,

who steal our joy, peace, hope, plans, and dreams.

Some do it in tiny doses when you least expect it, blindsiding you and leaving you stunned

with their negativity and criticism. Others manipulate you, twisting your words,

creating doubt about your plans and withholding praise or encouragement when you're working so

hard to pursue your dreams. As we face those difficult people in our lives, we can take great

encouragement from this verse. These words were spoken by a man named Joseph, who had been his

father's favorite child, and his brothers hated him for that, who even mocked him by calling him

the dreamer. They called him this because Joseph had told them the dreams that he had at night.

One dream used images of wheat sheaves in a field and all the brothers sheaves bowing to Joseph's

sheaf. Another dream was of the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowing down to him.

These dreams enraged the brothers. Hate stirs difficult people to treat us badly.

Their hearts are filled with jealousy and envy. They lack compassion and restraint and,

instead, plot ways to foil our plans.

Hatred caused Joseph's brothers to want to murder him.

But one brother stepped in and persuaded them to sell him as a slave instead, taking Joseph far

away to Egypt. Years later, when his hateful brothers appeared before him to purchase food during

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