Today's Reading
- Genesis 38-45
- Psalm 21-24
- Isaiah 21-24
- Romans 14-16
Reading Time: 59 minutes
It was Corrie ten Boom who said, "There is no panic in heaven. God has no problems, only plans"
What a statement. Especially coming from someone who suffered and lost so much while following God's plan for her life. Do you know her story? Of how her family took in foster children? Of how she worked with the mentally disabled? Of how they hid Jews from Nazi oppression during the German occupation of Holland? Of how they were arrested and went to prison? Of how her father, her sister, and her nephew died in prison? Of how her brother contracted tuberculosis in prison and eventually died from it? And yet hers is a story of great triumph and glory for the Lord.
How often do we panic in the face of our problems? I'm not asking it as a rhetorical question. I know I haven't suffered like Corrie suffered. In fact, if I have suffered at all in my life, it has been very little. Very little at all. And yet I know how much I have panicked when confronted with insurmountable obstacles. When something happens that doesn't quite fit in with what I think is God's plan for my life, my heart beats a little faster. My breath quickens. I feel physical discomfort. My mind races. I can't sleep at night. All of my fears and failures are thrown up in my face, and for a moment I wonder, "How can this all work out?"
Then I remember what a great God I serve. Sometimes remembering is the hardest part, but once I do, everything immediately calms down. We need to trust God.
Yesterday I wrote about Jacob, who seemed constantly in a state of panic over what was happening in his life. Even in his old age, he still worried about things over which he really had no control. But today I read about his son Joseph, his favorite son, who was nothing like his father. Joseph had a couple of dreams about the future God had planned for him. One would think a family would rejoice when one of its members was promised the blessings of God. Instead, Jacob and his other sons mocked and rebuked Joseph. His brothers even hated him for daring to have dreams of greatness, and at the first opportunity, they decided to do something about their annoyingly bratty dreaming brother.
They physically assaulted him. They stripped him of his cloak. They tossed him into a dried out well, and it only got worse from there. He is sold into slavery, falsely accused, unjustly imprisoned, unfairly forgotten by those he tried to help. And then one day, God brought him to the attention of Pharaoh. In that one day, he was elevated from the prison to the palace and made ruler over all Egypt, right underneath the most powerful man in the world. And through it all, Joseph remained faithful to his God. Even later, given a chance to exact vengeance and retribution on his brothers, he instead uses it as an opportunity to develop their character and determine if they have changed. And it seems that they had.
You see, God had a plan. He told Abraham his descendants would be strangers in a foreign land for 400 years, that they would be slaves for four generations, and that God would bring them out. God used Joseph to fulfill those plans. Joseph saved his entire family by being in a position of power he could never have reached on his own, in a place to which he would never have gone except for being kidnapped and sold into slavery. At the end of his story, Joseph declares, "What you meant for evil, God worked out for good."
Psalm 22 describes the intense suffering of the Savior, a prophecy fulfilled in the horrors of Jesus' crucifixion. Isaiah declares prophetic word after prophetic word regarding God's plans for the nations, especially Israel. And the closing chapters of Romans detail Paul's own ministry plans that went awry right after he wrote this letter.
Jesus could have called ten thousand angels to rescue Him, and they would have responded But he didn't, because that wasn't God's plan. Without Paul's imprisonment, he might never have been able to fulfill God's call to preach to kings. And without the roadblocks and difficulties we face along life's way, we might never end up where God really wants us to go.
As for me, I'm glad I'm here, right where I'm supposed to be.
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