Good Monday Morning (1-31-11),

I am constantly amazed at the depth and breadth of God’s provision. I don’t know why I’m still amazed. You’d think by now I would expect Him to do what He says He would do, even if it looks impossible.

But our God loves to reveal Himself within the amazing and the unimaginable.

When Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers it seemed a dramatically bad downturn. At that point, reading his story, I could not imagine anything good coming of it. I’m sure Joseph felt the same way.

But God had a plan. (He always does!) He knew a terrible drought loomed just over the horizon of time. He had promised Abraham that his descendants would greatly increase and that the entire earth would be blessed through them. When God declared the promise, He knew several generations later a killing famine would devastate that land, terminating many family lines. Even as the promise was spoken the provision for fulfilling the promise had been prepared.

So Joseph travelled as a slave to Egypt in order to protect his family from annihilation.

Here is the big question: If He did it for Joseph and his family, will He do it for me and mine?

Oh! We must know the answer. We must be assured that He is no respecter of persons. We must be able to proclaim loudly and constantly that what the enemy means for our destruction God will bring about to our good because we love Him.

Can we…will we…trust His provision and His protection? And when He has answered our current need, will we begin to trust the provision or continue to seek the Provider?

God sent Joseph to prepare the way for Abraham’s descendants. When Israel (Jacob) brought all his clan to Egypt they were given the land of Goshen as a place of plenty and goodness for their herds. It was a refuge during the onslaught of drought and famine.

Goshen was also a trap. The land was so sweet, their place there so secure, that the tiny kernel of humanity that would become the mighty nation of Israel very quickly forgot their provision came from God and they began trusting in the provision itself. Within one generation Jacob’s grandchildren had become slaves in the land of refuge.

Even then, God had a plan larger and more comprehensive than their complacency or their captivity.

This story is a promise and a warning for our own lives. When we are seeking Him and following Him we can be sure His plan is unfolding. We might seem to inhabit impossible circumstances but His answer is never very far and He has never been late. When we are looking to Him for our provision we can be sure…beyond doubt, beyond chance, beyond fate…absolutely sure that He’s got us covered.

Secondly, we must guard ourselves from trusting the provision instead of the Provider. Our Goshen, no matter how sweetly received, can so easily become our snare. We can so quickly end up slaves to what we trust when we stop trusting in the Source.

I seem to fall into this trap over and over again. Some blessing, amazing and startling provision, comes along just in time. I recognize God is always the source of my rescue.

But then, often within the same 24 hours, I begin looking at the provision as my source. I might have praised God for that unexpected check, but very soon I begin to feel comfortable and confident because that money is in the bank; not because God is on the throne, but because the money is in the bank.

God help me!! Help me to know You have a plan, a good plan, nothing forgotten or left out. Help me to recognize my current circumstances are not my final outcome because You are my good Heavenly Father and You have counted every hair on my head. Remind me of Your promises with the grace-filled confidence that You are well able to bring them to fruition. And finally, help me to remember the Source — not to confuse the provision with the Provider!

“But now, do not be distressed and disheartened or vexed and angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me ahead of you to preserve life…God sent me before you to preserve for you a posterity and to continue a remnant on the earth, to save your lives by a great escape and save for you many survivors.” Gen. 45:5 and 7, Amplified

Laurie Gross