I would like to share with you one of my favorite stories from the bible. In going through a personal famine of sorts in my life presently, I got a revelation from this story. I hope that you get something out if it also. First I am going to pray a personal prayer.
Today’s Prayer
Dear Lord, I said that I love You, but clouds started to gather ’round. I said I trusted You, then I lost my main source of income. I said that You wanted only good for me, but sickness stalked my family. Oh Lord, I try so hard to be a Christian but I often get in my own way. Then in my despair I cried out to You for help and You said, “I thought you’d never ask!” Oh Lord, what lengths You went to in order to get my attention! Help me to lean not on my own understanding, but to turn to You. Help me, for at times I forget I can’t help myself. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Let’s eat.
The Famine That Leads to Freedom
Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die. – Genesis 42:2
I’m sure that I have shared this message a time or two over the last 15 years. This time it comes from a different kind of famine in my life. F. B. Meyer in his book, The Life of Joseph, describes a time in the life of the 12 sons of Jacob in which they were driven from their lives of self-satisfaction to an unlikely place to save their lives. Many years earlier they had thrown their youngest brother into a pit, then sold him into slavery. Thirteen years later he became the second most powerful person in Egypt. Now the world was experiencing a famine, and Joseph controlled all the stored grain of Egypt.
You see As long as the hills were green and the pastures clothed with flocks, as long as the valleys were covered over with corn and rang with the songs of reapers, Reuben, Simeon, and the rest of them would have been unconcerned and content. But when the mighty famine came, the hearts of these men were opened to conviction. Their carnal security was shattered. They were being prepared for certain spiritual experiences they would never have dreamed. And they were being prepared for the meeting with Joseph. This is how God deals with us; He breaks up our nest, He loosens our roots, He sends a mighty famine that cuts away the whole staff of bread. Then, at the times when we are weary, worn, and sad, we are prepared to confess our sins and receive the words of Christ when He says, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest“ (Matthew 11:28).
A mentor of mine once said, “There is a place where we will all be obedient.” Joseph was a type of Christ in the Old Testament. The famine was an event designed to bring the brothers to repentance and a saving knowledge, physically and spiritually. It created the circumstances that led to freedom for these men, for they had been in bondage to a wicked crime against their brother for many years. It was the forgiveness from Joseph that led to that freedom. I know now, after going through my personal famine, that God wanted my undivided attention and the only way He was going to get it was to take away everything that I held on to so that I would realize that all I needed was Him in control.
Is your life passing through a time of famine?
Are your supplies limited?
Is God leading you into directions that you would not normally seek?
Perhaps this is God’s hand creating circumstances for His purposes. Now is the time to look attentively as He directs you to unlikely sources.
Quote of the Day
Pride slays thanksgiving, but an humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves. ~Henry Ward Beecher~