Day 6: Abundant stores of goodness
When the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe throughout Egypt. And all the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere (Genesis 41:56-57).
Our Father in heaven, in You we find our source, our sufficiency. We meditate on the truth of David's words, How abundant are the good things that You have stored up for those who fear You, that You bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in You (Psalm 31:19).
Father, how amazing it is that You take the humbling circumstances of our lives, and the setbacks and adversities we so dread, and weave them together for our good, and for the benefit of those around us! How incredibly You use Your people as instruments of blessing and provision and deliverance!
O God, You alone know the future, and You alone know how to prepare us and equip us, and safeguard us for what lies ahead. Even in the restrictions, the constraints, and the circumstances that seem to hem us in You are working for Your glory and our good. Where we see cells and dungeons, walls and confinement, You see incubators of faith, and pathways to the knowledge, experience, and wisdom we need.
You were with Joseph in an Egyptian jail, pouring into him Your stores of endurance, resourcefulness, empathy, and astuteness. You taught him how to govern, manage, plan, direct, control, record, account, anticipate, discern, listen (Genesis 39:21-23; Genesis 40:6). Then in Your perfect timing You revealed him to Pharaoh as one in whom is the Spirit of God —one in whom was knowledge, and wisdom, and discretion (Genesis 41:38-39).
And in your perfect providence You provided deliverance, not just for the Egyptians, but for all the world (Genesis 41:56-57), and eventually for Joseph's own family. As all the world came to seek grain, You poured out through Joseph, not just the grain of Egypt, but also the abundant stores of goodness, knowledge, discretion, and wisdom You had rained down while he waited in a dark prison, discarded and forgotten (Genesis 41:39).
Encourage our hearts today Lord, in our own seasons of waiting, our own seasons of difficulty. You know how we struggle to make sense of the walls, the constraints, and the circumstances that hem us in. Open our minds—teach us Your ways. Rain down Your stores of knowledge, discretion and wisdom. Mold us into one in whom is the Spirit of God.
Help us to trust that in Your perfect timing, Your perfect providence, You will use our life and our experience to bless, provide and deliver—that You would dispense through us the grain of heaven—the bread of angels in place of the bread of adversity (Isaiah 30:20).
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