God With Us

Happy Wednesday! 

I guess the story of Joseph really stuck with me a few Sundays ago because I wrote not one blog post about him, but two in the past few weeks! 

One of the things the pastor mentioned about the story of Joseph was how God isn't mentioned until after Joseph has been sold into slavery. I had never noticed that before, so I went back to the story and looked at it myself and he was right. It isn't until chapter 39 once Joseph was sold to Potiphar that it says that "the Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master."

Over the past two months, I've been spending a lot of time digging deeper into the Word, into my faith and my relationship with God. There was a stretch of time where it felt like He wasn't there. He wasn't around. I was just going through the motions. Sometimes I still feel like that. But here's the thing... just because we don't feel Him or see Him in our circumstances, doesn't mean He's not there. 

No, I haven’t been betrayed by my brothers and sold into slavery. I haven’t been accused and wrongly imprisoned. But when I read Joseph’s story… I relate. Between the time it took for him to get into the hands of Potiphar where the Lord was with him and allowed him to prosper and between the time it took for him to get out of prison to interpret Pharaoh's dreams, I can imagine things probably felt pretty miserable and hopeless. I wonder if Joseph questioned God during that time, wondering why this was happening to him. I wonder if he felt lost and stuck and alone during those times. I mean Joseph spent two years in prison! God made him prosper in prison during that time, He gave the warden favor toward Joseph, but he was still in prison. 

Reading Joseph’s story… it reminds me that God is still with me. He is with us in the best of times and in the very worst of times. God was with Joseph when he prospered in Potiphar’s home and was favored by Pharaoh. God was with him when he had to travel as a stolen slave from Canaan to Egypt and as he spent two years in prison. 

I don’t know if you're in a similar season. A season that feels bleak and fruitless. Like your walking through a barren valley. God seems quiet. You don’t hear Him or feel Him like you did even just a month ago. You start to question if He’s really there, if He really does have good plans for you. Maybe the struggles and trials of 2020 still have their claws in you. Maybe the political turmoil, the hate and the fear being spread like wildfire is shriveling your heart. Or maybe you just feel lonely and depression is eating away at you. 

If any of that is true or if you’re struggling with something else entirely, heartbreak, betrayal, tiredness, hurt, I just want you to know… God is with you. The same God who was with Joseph through his time as a slave and his time in prison is with you! And you know what God did while Joseph was a slave and imprisoned? He was with him so that he prospered. The Lord showed kindness to Joseph during his time in prison. God brought Joseph out of those trials, rewarding his faithfulness and brought him into a great position of power. After his and because of his trials, God used Joseph in huge ways to further His kingdom and help His people. That same God is with you. Maybe you don’t feel like he’s prospering you right now or showing you kindness, but I promise you He is still with you! My pastor said something that touched my heart a few Sundays ago when talking about this. He said as long as you still have air in your lungs, as long as you are still breathing, God is with you and He is using you. That has to be enough for us. Sometimes when life tears and wears at us, drags us down and enslaves and imprisons us, the solid and true knowledge that God is with us has to be enough. Even if we don’t feel Him or see Him working in wondrous and loud ways. 

That is what I hold onto in times of quiet and emptiness. When I feel lost and confused and just stuck in this rut, when I just don’t see God moving (probably because of my own human blindness because let’s be honest, God is always moving) what I need to hold onto, what we need to hold onto, is the fact that He is with us. He will never forsake or abandon us. Even when other people do, even when you feel like you can’t trust anyone else in the world, God is 100% trustworthy and He is here in this very present moment and He won’t leave you. No matter how bad life gets, no matter how hard things seem to become, no matter how many times you cry or lash out, He won’t forsake you. He will raise you up out of this pit, out of this prison and this enslavement and will be glorified through these circumstances. I don’t know when and I don’t know how, but I have to trust that He is good and that He will make fruit come from these seemingly barren fields. 

Guys, He is with you. If you need proof of that, open your Bible and read through the stories of Joseph, Moses, and David. Trust Him, keep moving through the haze and keep fighting forward. It is worth it and He is worth it and He will be with you in every struggle and hardship. His presence is a constant and for that I am so, so thankful.