What do you do when you want to
DEFEND yourself,
yet you know that no one will BELIEVE anyway?
Do you take OFFENSE and fight back?
Do you WIPE THE DUST off your feet and walk away?
What would you do?
Picture this.
You are standing in the check out line at a store,
right next to
the impulse shopping racks filled with
magazines and candy.
The person in front of you looks around suspiciously,
and then picks up a bag of candy
and begins to put it in
their pocket.
You are taken back as you are watching the whole thing.
At that moment,
the cashier connects eyes with the shoplifter.
The shoplifter panics and slides the candy in your pocket.
As if times has stopped, you are paralyzed,
The cashier comes over and approaches the guilty one
and asks for the candy.
The shoplifter looks at you and tells the cashier that you are the one who took the candy.
You deny it.
The shoplifter then tells the cashier to check your pocket.
And lo and behold, there is the candy in your pocket!
You are guilty as charged.
You try to DEFEND yourself, as they are escorting you away.
You know you are innocent, yet proven guilty.
You are silenced.
Have you been there?
And I don't mean candy.
Have you ever been convicted of doing or saying something,
that you never did do or say,
yet no one BELIEVES you?
You try to DEFEND yourself,
yet the guiltier you appear.
Not a fun place to be, when there is no way out.
I think of JOSEPH,
the one who had the dreamy colored coat,
who was treated
UNJUSTLY by his brothers and thrown in a pit.
And that was just the beginning of the
INJUSTICE.
For the icing on the cake was when
JOSEPH was serving for the Official Potiphar, as his right hand man,
BUT Potiphar's wife falsely accused JOSEPH of attempted rape,
when JOSEPH denied her seductive invitation,
when he verbally refused her,
so that he was imprisoned.
JUST or UNJUST?
Oh so UNJUST, but there is a
BUT to his story~
“BUT the LORD was with Joseph
and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor”.*
There is the word BUT.
BUT GOD was with Joseph.
The BUT that connects you to GOD
because
GOD IS JUST~
"For all HIS ways are just;A GOD of faithfulness without iniquity (injustice),JUST and upright is HE" (Deuteronomy 32:4),
even in prison~
"The warden committed to Joseph’s care (management) all the prisoners who were in the prison; so that whatever was done there, he was in charge of it.The warden paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s care because the LORD was with him; whatever Joseph did"
*(Genesis 39).
BUT did GOD DEFEND Joseph in those moments?
Oh yes, BUT behind the scenes,
as GOD ALWAYS has a better
PURPOSE and PLAN
that will be oh so
GOOD!
So fast forward
from more UNJUST to JUST,
for
JOSEPH was released not only
from the prison of the pit
but from the prison in the palace
because of
BUT GOD~
“BUT the LORD was with Joseph
and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor”.
Is GOD JUST?
Oh yes,
as JOSEPH faces his perpetrators,
his own brothers who sent him to the pit.
Did JOSEPH take OFFENSE?
Did JOSEPH DEFEND himself?
Oh no,
for instead these words flowed from his heart~
"BUT as for you, you meant evil against me;
BUT GOD meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day,
to save many people alive" (Genesis 50:20).
Huh! Yup.
JOSEPH.
Imprisoned in a pit.
Sold into slavery.
Falsely Accused.
Imprisoned in a cell.
“But the LORD was with Joseph
and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor.”
GOD never leaves the scene.
GOD is always our DEFENDER.
I know the pain of being penned guilty when innocent,
and it isn't a fun place,
BUT it is a place where GOD takes you on a journey
DEEPER into HIS heart
because
GOD never leaves the scene.
BUT GOD IS JUST,
for GOD works all things for the GOOD of those who LOVE HIM (Romans 8:28).
So if you have candy in your pocket,
that you did not put there,
yet are being falsely accused,
remember
BUT GOD
never leaves the scene!
Therefore,
"I wait patiently for GOD to save me;
I depend on HIM alone. HE alone protects and saves me;
HE is my defender, and I shall never be defeated" (Psalm 62:1-2)
Oh FOLLOW THE LEADER
wherever you are right now,
whether on a mountaintop
or feel imprisoned,
because there is a big
BUT GOD,
for
"HIS LOVE DEFENDS ME"
(listen to the song below)
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