Daily Devotional – May 15, 2020

Well, good afternoon, how are you doing here on day 55 looks like it's shaping up to be a pretty nice spring day here in the

Sauk Valley good day for the Sun to drive away some unwanted virus or a

Good day to get away from the TV and the Internet Well, maybe except for the noon devotional

I suppose but get outside. Enjoy spring. Enjoy this nicer weather So let me ask you did you have any vacation plans this year?

So much for that, huh? Yeah, I was communicating with one of the ladies from the church who on on Facebook.

She mentioned that Her dog just was just doing a lot of scratching on the floor

Just kept scratching and scratching and scratching and wonder what in the world is going on so she she said she asked the dog, why do you keep doing that and She said now this is her what she said.

She said the dog replied Because I can So I suggested to her that maybe this lockdown is getting to be a little bit too much and You know, she may she may need to get out herself

Get some more fresh air, but then the next day I was lamenting our own ruined vacation plans and so I went in a storage room where all our luggage is kept and I I Told my suitcase that church recently sent me a pretty thought to vote thought -provoking devotional and I'll share that with you here in a few minutes, but it got me to think this is in our community and in our area

I don't like that. People are losing their jobs by the thousands I don't like the the impact that it's having on the food supply not only in in America, but all over the world

This like the seemingly indefinite closing of churches and just being in limbo not knowing when our church is going to be able to gather together again and On and on and on we can go.

Whoa is me kind of stuff but then I have to step back a bit and Do what

I often encourage the church family to do when I'm teaching a passage of Scripture and that is to Put themselves in the story

Put yourself in a story to feel the story to make it live

To put yourself in the shoes of the characters that are in that story that you're reading.

So Do you remember what it was like when you were 17 years old? What was going on in your life when you were 17?

You were probably a senior in high school and it was this time you looking forward to graduation and so forth

All right. So did you have Siblings in your family brothers and sisters? Okay.

So what would it have been like if you were 17 years of age? captured by your own brothers and You're overhearing them talking about even killing you what would that have been like if you were

Joseph at 17 years of age and At 17 years of age being sold by your brothers to a band of splitter and and when that happens you fully expect that you're gonna be a slave the rest of your life and Then if finally get a ray of hope

Another prisoner is being released and he's going to work for the one person in the whole kingdom that has the potential of pardoning you and releasing you from prison and So this guy gets off gets out of prison and and is returned back to his position before the king and you have hope

That you're gonna have a good word put in for you But the months go by there you sit no word comes and you soon realize that once again

You've been forgotten What would you want? How would you feel about God in those conditions

What would you be praying for if you were praying? What would you be praying for?

Now we could go through the same exercise with several other characters in the Bible, right? How about David being hunted by Saul?

O 'Neill again as a young youth in his early teens Probably taken captive by an invading army and captured he's arrested and burned at the stake just because If you were in their predicament, how would you pray?

What would you ask God? Well, it's kind of a rhetorical question, isn't it at least?

Alright, so that is a background Here's what my friend sent me the other day and it's it

God the Holy Spirit is speaking He says this I could have pulled

Joseph out out of that pit out of that prison out of that pain and I would have cheated nations out of the one

God would use to deliver them from famine. I Could have pulled David out out of salt and I would have cheated the entire world out of a

Savior Stop your pain But right now I know it would be wrong.

I would be out of line I would be cheating you out of so much good Because in you that you can trust him

Even when it all feel this road that you've been on now one thing we do not know through this time of restrictor either do we that When the truth that God has revealed keep going back to to your focus what you know to be true

So let's pray to that end and ask God to give us a good all that you are a trustworthy

God lives, but more importantly we yield ourselves to you and we pray