I asked my friend how she was doing the other day and she said, “You know those weeks where everything just seems to be going wrong?!”
And I said “Yup, yup I do.”
Between the two of us, we had a broken A/C, broken water heater, weeds galore, car damage, pregnancy pains, broken garbage disposal, crazy work schedules and hectic personal schedules.
And all of it had happened within the last week.
Isn’t that how life is?
All at once or nothing at all.
I’m sure Father Jacob felt this “all at once” emotional pain overcome him when he saw his sons return from their first trip to Egypt.
Joseph had been gone for years, but I’m sure the pain was still fresh. Simeon was now imprisoned in Egypt. And they wanted to take Benjamin with them when they returned?! He would surely be taken from him, too!
It’s no wonder that he cried out, just like many of us have:
“All these things are against me.” (Genesis 42:36)
Sometimes, it sure seems like this is the case.
You can’t catch a break, the struggles keep piling up, and you can’t seem to find a tender mercy anywhere.
Why is everything against me?!
Guess what we get reminded of in Psalm 56:9?
“God is for me.”
THINGS may be against us. Air conditionings and garbage disposals may be out to make our lives miserable.
Or just the natural circumstances of living as a human in a fallen world make life rough.
But GOD will always be FOR US.
Do I believe that?
Do I really believe that?
Honestly, I do. And it’s gotten me through plenty of rough weeks.
It’s kept me focused on gratitude. It’s kept me grounded in prayer. It’s kept me KNOWING that things will work out, even if it doesn’t look like it in the moment, and even if “work out” looks differently than I hope.
Everything might be against me.
But God is for me.
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
