Thursday, December 22, 2016

Genesis 42 - Praying God's Word


Please read Genesis 42.
www.blueletterbible.org/nasb/gen/42/1/s_42001
Meditate on this phrase from verse 19.

Confined in your prison …

The last time Joseph’s brothers saw and heard him was over 20 years ago. They had thrown him into a pit then sat down to eat a meal. Their dinner music that day was a young Joseph crying and pleading in his distress (Genesis 37:23-25; 42:21).
They spent the next 20 years living a lie. They told their father, Jacob, a wild animal killed Joseph. The truth was they sold him to some Ishmaelites (Genesis 37:28). The truth had never been told, and Jacob still mourned for his beloved son.
Now more than 20 years later, they saw and heard Joseph, the boy they had been seeing and hearing in their memories every time they looked into their grieving father’s eyes. They did not recognize him yet as Joseph their brother.
They lived in an emotional prison; now Joseph also put them in a physical one. After three days, he released all but Simeon and sent the remaining nine to go home and bring the young brother they had spoken of back to Joseph. (Benjamin is described as a little child and a lad in Genesis 44:20-22. Genesis 42 is probably the first time Joseph knew he had a younger brother.)
They returned to Canaan and told their father what happened in Egypt. After hearing their story, Jacob made a statement revealing he had known all along these older brothers were behind Joseph’s disappearance, “You have bereaved me of my children; Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and you would take
Benjamin ...” (Genesis 42:36).

Think about your life and the lives of those you influence. Are you in a spiritual prison? Have you put others into spiritual and emotional prisons? Are you in a prison of unforgiveness and bitterness? Does your anger, selfishness, or jealousy put those around you into prisons of fear and insecurity? Are lies keeping all of you in prisons of mistrust and deception?
The best present you could give this Christmas is freedom from the prisons created by past sins. Ask God for forgiveness, ask others to forgive you, and forgive others like Jesus forgives you.
Pray Genesis 42:19 over yourself and those for whom you stand guard as a faithful, prayerful watchman (Isaiah 62:6-7).
“LORD, ___________ and I are confined in our prisons.
Help us go and carry grain for the spiritual famine that has been in our households.

In Your name, Jesus~”

The WATCHMAN on the WALL ~ Dr. Ron and Marsha Harvell

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