Day 38 – Issue 11

Be Still Know

Genesis 37:24-25a NLT

‘Then they grabbed him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it. Then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them.’

Ever found yourself in a hole with no obvious way out? This is precisely where Jacob’s sons put Joseph. Stripped of his coat of many colours, one of the sources that fuelled his brothers’ resentment, he now found himself in a deep hole with no water, left alone to die.

Meanwhile, his brothers, congratulating themselves on their day’s work, sat down to eat. I have long marvelled at the number of psalms that speak of the vulnerability and sense of injustice experienced by the godly in contrast to the material success and comfort of the wicked. Every time, no matter the anger the psalmist expresses, their poem of pain concludes with a confident commitment to entrust their welfare to God. In other words, circumstances aren’t the only window onto God’s world and my place within it.

So often, when I find myself in a hole, I wake in the early hours and now sleepless, spend my time fretting over what looks like an impossible situation, without water, a source of sustenance and a metaphor for the presence of God’s Holy Spirit. Water is also the one essential component at baptism, where a divine destiny is planted.

A life dedicated to God’s service is truly one that will forever surprise us. In God’s hands, where we are carried is entirely in the will of God. It is discomforting, coming to terms with the reality of giving up the authority to determine my own path. It requires courage to walk in Jesus’ footsteps and to live the prayer Jesus prayed, ‘yet not according to my will, but may your will be done’.

QUESTION: Consider the holes you have found yourself unexpectedly and unwillingly placed in; or indeed the hole you are currently enduring.

PRAYER: Sovereign Lord, I know that when your rescue comes it might be to something new, yet you know all things and I trust you. 

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright C 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc, Wheaton, Illinois 60189 USA. All rights reserved.