Verse of the day:
Genesis 43:14 “And may God
Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may release your other brother
and Benjamin. If I am bereaved, I am bereaved!”
Israel
went through what each of us, who desire to obey the will of God, experience
when we have to make crucial decisions; especially ones that can potentially
cost us a great deal or bring us much pain. The process is complicated further when
we have already suffered some kind of loss. In Israel’s case, he has already
lost one son (Joseph), at least to the best of his knowledge, and now he has
one who has been held captive (Simeon) while now having to allow his youngest,
and dearest, son go; not knowing if he will see him again. If any of us are
truly honest, we would have to admit that we too would try to find some means
of resolving this issue short of sending Benjamin to Egypt with his brothers.
What he concludes, and finally decides to do, is that the best solution to this
difficult situation is to trust God’s will to prevail and live with whatever
outcome God allows. The greatest example we have of someone who submitted to
the Father’s will was Jesus. In Luke 22:42 Jesus prayed in the garden, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away
from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Even though
Jesus knew what the ultimate outcome was in laying down His life, it was still
a tremendously heavy burden knowing the pain He would have to endure in order
to bring us eternal life. Nonetheless, His response to what lie ahead was that
the Father’s will be done. One of the greatest obstacles we face in submitting
to God’s will is that all too often we play the “what if” game. “What if this happens
or that happens, if I do it the way God is leading me to?” “What if something
worse happens, or what if I can’t do it?” “What if this really isn’t God’s
will?” The devils love throwing “what if” at us, and sadly, we entertain it far
too often. We need to stay in God’s Word, which tells us what God’s will is,
and we must be prayerful continually, especially as we begin to take steps
toward what we believe God is leading us to. The greatest piece to the puzzle
is simply trusting God for the outcome, and realizing that He will carry us
through whatever He allows to come out of the situation. God will not lead us
down a path that He cannot get us through. If we finish not our course, it is
not because God could not see us through, it is because we give up and do not
trust Him for whatever the outcome is going to be. Like Israel, there will be
those times when God allows us to be in a place where the only choice we have
is to go forward, against what we would prefer to do to make things easier, and
completely submit to whatever He allows as a result of submitting to His will
for a situation (Genesis 43:11-13). Can this be confusing at times? Yes, it
can. However, if we set the proper priorities, as far as how others will be
affected, putting God first, then He will honor that we have done our best to
keep the proper priorities, and give us an outcome that is usually completely
unexpected, and far better than any outcome we may try to manipulate. For
Israel, the ultimate outcome in trusting God to take care of Benjamin was that
not only did Benjamin come back to him, but the son that he thought he lost
forever was brought back to him (Genesis 45:25-28). Let us do all that we can
to submit to God’s will and direction, and trust Him with the results that He
desires to bring forth from our obedience and submission.
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