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Middle?

For 2021, I am reading through the Bible with the Bible Project Biblical Storyline Reading Plan on the YouVersion App. This devotional will follow along with the daily reading.

The reading for January 13 is: Genesis 38-40

When the cupbearer showed up and told Joseph his dream, Joseph must have thought, "Finally, rescue!" Joseph tells the cupbearer to remember Joseph when the cupbearer goes back to cupbearing for Pharaoh. We read in Genesis 40:23 that the cupbearer forgot Joseph.

Joseph found himself in the middle of a test. 

What do I do in the middle of a test?

I naturally like to see good rewarded and bad punished. Some day all the good will be lifted high and all the bad will be stopped forever. Until then, God trains the righteous to trust Him when the evil seem to succeed and the good go through hardship.

What does God want me to do when I am tested?

Expect to face many difficulties. This life is not easy. 

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all" Psalm 34:19 ESV 

God will save me out of it, so I need to pay attention to what God is doing in and through me. If my joy truly comes from the Lord, then my joy will persist through hard times.

In Candles in the Dark p. 12, Amy Carmichael describes it this way, "Joy though it be to be conscious of that blessed One, the great thing is not my feeling, but His fact. So if there are fogs on the sea on any day or any night--still all's well."


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