Day 14

From Anxiety to Exhilaration

Read: Genesis 43-45

What pressures we must sometimes live under. Consider the predicament of Israel (Jacob). He was between a rock and a hard place. After losing Joseph, he didn’t want to let Benjamin go lest he lose him also. But if he didn’t let him go, they would all starve. Consider how much better the situation was than he thought it was. So often we are in a similar situation. Things may be difficult, but God has promised that all things will work together for good if we love him (Rom. 8:28).

And consider the predicament of Joseph’s brothers. They are in a foreign land playing a game they don’t understand, with rules that seem constantly to be changing. Yet just around the corner, everything is going to look brighter. We need to be realistic about our problems, but we also should be optimists, for if we are on God’s side, he is on our side, and his plans for us are wonderful beyond imagination.

Joseph believed in providence. Looking back, he could see the hand of God in all that had happened. This enabled him to be gracious to his brothers who had hurt him so deeply. You may have serious problems. You cannot see the hand of God in them now. But trust God, seek to obey him, and the day will come when you will be able to look back and see that he has done all things well.

PRAYER
Father, give us faith to believe that your hand is in all that happens to us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.