Daily Devotion

 With Pastor Ancel Presnell

“GOD USES OUR PAST TO HELP SHARE OUR FUTURE”

There are many things within our past that we would just as soon leave behind; Lord only knows the baggage I have back there that needs to stay there. However, sometimes, things in our past have yet to be dealt with, and God will not allow them to remain, since we belong to Him.

Joseph’s brothers had committed an awful deed against their younger brother Joseph in their past; in fact, it was 20 years in the past. They did not know how he was, whether he was alive, or anything else about him. They had led their father, Jacob, to believe that an animal had killed him. He believed that for 20 years, just as they had put their sin against Joseph and God in the closet of their minds for twenty years.

The brothers needed to make a trip to Egypt to buy food, but Jacob would not allow Benjamin, their youngest brother, to go with them. This served as a reminder of their past sin against Joseph. Jacob would not allow it because he couldn’t stand the thought of losing another young son if something went wrong.

They still had not addressed this wrongdoing, which is why a reminder was necessary. Unbeknownst to them, the governor they would eventually encounter in Egypt was actually their brother Joseph. He was going to send them away and require them to bring their baby brother back with them if they needed any more food. This troubled them deeply because they were now having to face their sin from 20 years ago. It was the best thing that could have happened, though—a family reunion was coming soon, but repentance had to come first.

If we have past sins that have yet to be dealt with before God, we should run to the cross right now and do what is necessary to address them if we can. If it’s a sin that has been confessed, repented of, and corrected, it is in the past and forgiven. The entire point to see here is this: God can use horrible things in our past, even things that we’re guilty of, to shape our future once corrected.

Genesis 42:3—6 “³ And Joseph’s ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. ⁴ But Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren; for he said, Lest peradventure mischief befall him. ⁵ And the sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that came: for the famine was in the land of Canaan. ⁶ And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.”