February 19

Things For And Against

Their father Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my sons. Joseph is gone and Simeon is no more. Now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is going against me!” — Gen 42:36 BSB

What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is there to condemn us? For Christ Jesus, who died, and more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God—and He is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. — Rom 8:31-37 BSB

Your complaint is very bitter, Prince of Israel! What troubles you so deeply? Is there no one to comfort you?

"I have every reason to be sorrowful! The days of my life have been few and full of hardship! Driven from my father’s home, a stranger in a foreign land for thirty years, living in constant fear of my brother, forced to flee because of my sons’ wrongdoings, bereaved of my beloved Rachel, and crippled from my struggle with God’s Angel—I had already endured so much. But now we are suffering from famine and want; Joseph is gone, Simeon is being held in prison as a hostage, and now they’re demanding Benjamin, the son of my old age and my dearest one.”

Let’s be careful not to pass quick judgment on God’s ways with us. He cannot accomplish His beautiful plan without some cross-stitches on this side of the tapestry. The dark clouds are just His water reservoirs, and on the other side, they’re bathed in sunlight. Don’t view your sorrows from the lowlands of your journey, but from the heights of God’s purpose. No discipline seems pleasant at the time—it’s painful. But afterward… focus on that Afterward! If Jacob hadn’t been led down this difficult path, he would never have reached the bright highlands, where God Himself is the Sun.

“In all these things we are more than conquerors!” These are bold words, you determined soul, how can you challenge the patriarch’s conclusion? Have you plumbed the depths? Have you been in the pit?

“Yes! I have definitely been there! I have faced trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and violence; beaten with rods three times, stoned once. I’ve been on countless journeys, in danger, in hunger and thirst, in cold and pain. But nothing has succeeded in separating me from the love of Christ; and I am convinced that neither life nor death, present things nor future things… will ever separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Yes! Great Apostle and Lover of Christ, you are right! In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who has loved us—our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Prayer

Help me, O Lord, to believe that what seem to be my losses are really gains, and that each ounce of affliction is adding to the weight of glory, not only in the hereafter but even now! Amen.