Genesis 50: 18 -20
18 Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. “Look, we are your slaves!” they said.
18 Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. “Look, we are your slaves!” they said.
19 But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I
God, that I can punish you? 20 You intended to harm me, but God
intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the
lives of many people.
Throughout the past few devotionals, we've concentrated our
attention on the value of allowing our bodies sufficient time to rest. As
important as that is, there is another rest that is equally important—resting
our minds.
I'm referring here to releasing the things that drag us down
and torment us. As we shall see, God has a much better plan. He wants us to
trust Him, to let Him handle all of that, rather than churning and worrying.
When we strain and struggle, we end up mentally exhausted. When we release to
Him the details we cannot handle, He takes charge and . . . we relax!
There once lived a man named Joseph, who was the youngest in
a very large family. All of his brothers were jealous of him, so they turned
against him, mistreated him, and finally sold him to a caravan of strangers:
"Out of sight, out of mind" was their thinking. How unfair!
Long story short, the brothers returned home, lied to their
daddy, telling him that Joseph had been killed . . . and Joseph wound up in
Egypt. He was then sold as a common slave and was forced while still a teenager
to begin another life in a country far removed from home. After more unfair
treatment, including his being falsely accused of rape, serving a prison
sentence, and being left and forgotten in an Egyptian dungeon for years, he was
finally released. And—would you believe it?—he ultimately became the prime
minister of Egypt, serving as the Pharaoh's right-hand man. Among many other
huge responsibilities, he was in charge of overseeing the vast food supply for
that nation. The man went from the pit to the pinnacle—that's when things got
really interesting.
A famine struck the entire region of land—a severe famine.
It became so extreme that those same brothers, who had heard that Egypt had
grain in abundance, traveled there to meet with the prime minister (!), not
knowing that he was their long-lost younger brother. To cut to the chase, when
they found out, panic set in. They anticipated his revenge to the maximum,
paying them back for all the wrong they had done to him. It never happened.
Joseph had refused to become resentful and bitter, even though those men
deserved the severest of punishments.
Instead of retaliating, Joseph forgave them.
How could he? Plain and simple, he left all vengeance to the
Lord. To use our terms, Joseph rested and relaxed, trusting in His God.
Thought for today:
Can I truly give “it” to God and not worry?
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