DAILY READING
REFLECTION
Has God Forgotten Me?
by Mary Alice McGinnis
I have had a recurring nightmare in my adulthood. The detail of the dream often changes, but the overarching themes remain the same.
I am lost - dreadfully lost.
The more I try to find my way out, the more lost I become.
I am met with dark alleys with lurking enemies around every corner, ready to attack me.
I try to run, but I cannot get away.
The threat of danger and evil is all around me, and it is imminently real.
And worse yet, no one knows where I am.
Who will come looking for me? Does anyone even care?
The feelings of being abandoned and forgotten is crushing.
Don’t you think Joseph felt like God had forgotten him? God had given him a vision of his calling at a very young age. Yet, he was betrayed by his own brothers and sold into slavery. Then he was falsely accused and imprisoned.
This verse is telling: “They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons.”
Scholars say that this verse could be rendered differently from the original Hebrew language: "He was laid in iron" or "the iron went into his soul."
Have you been in that kind of place in your life before? The harsh, heavy irons of life’s hardships, betrayals, heartaches, weigh us down and threaten to imprison us. We may be feeling locked up physically, but also held captive in the iron grips of our minds, emotions and tightly shackled in depths of our souls.
But amid these verses, the Psalmist points us to the key to unlocking our deep hopelessness.
Though famine struck the land in Joseph’s time, and the land was destroyed, verse 17 says: “and He (God) sent a man before them— Joseph, sold as a slave.”
The threat of starvation was real. But God was using the hardships of Joseph to prepare him for his part in God’s redemption story. Through Joseph, God would put on display the glorious faithfulness of His Covenant. It was God’s same covenant story carried down from Adam and Eve, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And now to Joseph too.
Joseph said in Genesis 45:7 - "But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance."
Did you notice the prophetic tone of the Psalmists’ words? Go back and reread these verses again in Psalm 105. Ponder on these thoughts:
God sent Jesus, ahead of us.
Jesus became a slave, a servant of the lowliest form.
They bruised Him, shackled Him, and hung Him on a cross.
His pain, betrayal, and sufferings were real.
His life was poured out, even unto death.
His Father turned His back on Him and abandon Him.
Yet, God, the King of Kings released Him from the power and dominion of darkness. Not even death could hold Him.
He was raised back to life.
And now He is exalted above all others.
He is seated on the righthand of God the Father, and given the Name that is above every other Name.
Joseph’s story is also our story.
Where is God putting His Covenant story on display in your life, even through times of hardship? God sees you! He has not forgotten you.
He sent Jesus ahead of you.
Psalm 105:8 “He remembers His covenant forever, the promise He made, for a thousand generations.”
PRAYER PRACTICE
Use this song to bring your heart to God in prayer today. Pour out your hurts, your sufferings, your fears to Him. May the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, breathe upon you this day and enlighten you to the ways He is working. Be assured, He has not forgotten you!
"Psalm 13" by Shane and Shane.
