Revival

1/30/2008 9:08 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                  Focus:  Revival

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  Genesis 45:25-28

            Message of the verses:  “25 ¶  Then they went up from Egypt, and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob.  26  They told him, saying, "Joseph is still alive, and indeed he is ruler over all the land of Egypt." But he was stunned, for he did not believe them.  27  When they told him all the words of Joseph that he had spoken to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.  28  Then Israel said, "It is enough; my son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.’”

            I just want to write one thing before I read the commentary by Dr. Wiersbe, and that is that Jacob’s spirit revived whenever he truly believed that Joseph was still alive, so this means that Jacob was still mopping around and not really living a worthwhile life before he heard this news.  Jacob had said in the past that “all these things are against me,” and the Scriptures also record that after the so called death of Joseph that he would not be comforted from this loss.  After reading parts of “Heaven is Real” by Don Piper he writes some things in that book that fit in to this story of Jacob.  Jacob had crossed a bridge whenever Joseph came up missing and he thought that Joseph was dead, and after crossing that bridge he chose to stay in the valley of despair and not see where the Lord was going to lead him.  When a person goes through something like Jacob went through it will take some time before they can move on, yet they can chose not to move on and then they will live in despair and not really see where it is that God will lead them.  Life is not always “fair” and when it is not fair a believer needs the aid of the Holy Spirit to bring them up out of the pit of despair and lead them to where it is that God wants them to go next and now Jacob was ready to move on after hearing the news about Jacob, but how many years did he waste in the “valley of despair.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!”  Paul writes these words in his letter to the Romans near the end of a lengthy section concerning the Jewish nation.  There were question about the Jews that needed to be answered and the answers were maybe not what the Jews were looking for so Paul writes this verse saying that who can know the mind of God, and maybe the things that are happening are not what some people would want to happen, yet no one should question the sovereign will of God for His judgments are unsearchable and His ways are unfathomable.  So it is with what is going on in my life, that is things that I cannot figure out, but I must trust the Lord in all of this knowing that He loves me and whenever I come out the other side I will be closer to the image of my Lord Jesus Christ.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust and continue to allow the Spirit of God to lead me.

Memory verses for the week:  Philippians 1:9-11

9. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,
10. so that you may prove the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;
11. having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.