Read Genesis 37, Genesis 39-45, and Genesis 50:15-20
It just keeps going on, doesn’t it? The days and weeks that we have been counting since the advent of COVID-19 have turned into months, and still there is no trustworthily predictable end in sight. We can guess, but there is no certainty that our guesses are anywhere near on target. In some places, peak is still in the distance, or the onslaught is just beginning; and, worst of all, in some places a resurgence has begun or is about to begin because the loosening of restrictions was instituted too quickly.
How is this affecting you? For some, the impact of fear, followed by mounting precaution, has turned into a period of discontentment. A surge of faith is on the decline as one day follows another with no end in sight. Feelings of stress attack us. Our lagging faith even prompts us to ask, “Is God REALLY still in control?”
I can only imagine that Joseph must have pondered that question. Here he was, the favored son of his father Jacob, sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, and tossed into prison on false accusations. He life was like the pit in which his brothers had hidden him until the slave traders came along. It all seemed so wrong. What had Joseph done to deserve this?
Maybe you are thinking similar thoughts. Why is it that so much of the world should be infected by such a deadly virus? Why doesn’t God do something about it? How can we say He is in control when this mess just keeps going on and on?
Joseph could have been so angry with his brothers. Look what they had done to him! Imagine how he had suffered because of them. When he was reunited with them years later, however, he did not lash out. Instead, he gave them the grain they needed so desperately to stay alive. He allowed their families to join them in the land of plenty. The brothers must have walked around on eggshells, though, wondering what would happen when their father Jacob died. Would Joseph still show such mercy to them? He did, indeed, answering their pleas for forgiveness with tears, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is being done now, the saving of many people.”
We can say the same thing today. COVID-19 is a bad deal, killing many and causing distress and economic devastation; but God is using it for good to save many souls. We see it even as it is happening…..people who are “attending” church when they would never enter a physical building, people who are not in the habit of praying to God asking Him for protection and for the healing of loved ones, the Church being the Church as it has not been before, ministering to those outside of the Church.
Yes! God REALLY IS still in control. His glory is being made known throughout the whole earth in ways it never has been before.
Father, sometimes it is so difficult for us, in our humanness, to understand how anything good could come out of what seems so horrible. We want so much to believe that You are in control, that You know exactly what You are doing and what marvelous good you are reaping from all the bad. Again, we ask, would You please increase our faith? Strengthen us in the areas in which we are weak. Forgive us when our faith lags. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.