Feeling Trapped?

Genesis 40:15

For I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon. (Joseph’s full story is found in Genesus 37-47) I believe that barriers are nothing to God. This quote is from a man who at that time had spent the majority of his life in literal slavery (from the ages of 17-30).

I have felt trapped where I work, trapped were I live, wanted to take a vacation anywhere with no money to do it. But I’ve got nothing on Joseph. Joseph was really trapped. Not only was he trapped, his own brothers had sold him into slavery. Next, due to his purity, he was falsely accused of attempted rape (by the wife of his boss who wanted to have sex with him, though he refused), left to rot in a dungeon for maybe a decade and forgotten by the people he had helped there.

I wonder if he ever wanted to give up. I wonder if he ever got mad at God.

Then one morning he got up like he did every day, attended to his duties under the prison warden, but today the palace guards showed up. They shaved his face (imagine 10 years of no shaving and minimal cleaning), bathed him, changed his clothes and put him in front of the leader of the world, Pharaoh. Within a few MINUTES he was running the civilized world and within days (probably) Pharaoh had given him a wife. People even bowed before him as he rode through the streets. Quite a change.

In the end, Joseph said this to his brothers (who sold him into that life of hell), “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God.” (Genesis 45:8).

My obstacles are nothing to Him, and the worst events of my life can be turned around completely if I remain true to Him.

Awake and Alive

Romans 13:11
”The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber…”

This verse puts to words something that has haunted me for years. I am haunted by the thought that I am walking around in this life asleep even though I am awake. I am numbed by the constant flux of pleasure and “relief” that come from this world by good things and bad things.

I don't want to sleep anymore.

The verse goes on: “…clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful flesh.” (Romans 13:14)

The more I think about myself, my flesh, my life, my needs, my wants, my plans, my goals, the more I meditate on this all day long… the more I am brought into a numbing sleep. This is a sleep where I have no eyes for the Kingdom or concern for His glory; A sleep where I only concern myself with me.

King David said, “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.” (Psalm 62:1). I have attained relief from many things but only one thing has brought me true rest. I have found, like King David, intimacy with God is the only rest this world offers.

I fall on my face and call out to God for the only thing that really satisfies: Him.