Both Are True

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. I'm Kirsten Holmberg, and I titled our reading, Both Are True. After three decades, Feng Lulu was reunited with her birth family. As a toddler, she was kidnapped while playing outside her house. But through the help of All China Women's Federation, she was finally located.

Because she was so young when she was abducted, Feng Lulu doesn't remember it. She grew up believing she'd been sold because her parents couldn't afford to keep her. So learning the truth surfaced many questions and emotions. When Joseph was reunited with his brothers in Genesis chapter 45, it's likely he experienced some complex emotions. He'd been sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt as a young man. Despite a series of painful twists and turns, God propelled Joseph to a position of authority. When his brothers came to Egypt to buy food during a famine, they unwittingly sought it from him. Joseph acknowledged that God redeemed their wrongdoing, saying he used it to save their lives by a great deliverance. Yet Joseph didn't redefine their hurtful actions toward him.

He described them accurately as selling him. We sometimes try to put an overly positive spin on difficult situations, focusing on the good God brings from them without acknowledging the emotional struggle. Let's take care not to redefine a wrong as being good simply because God redeemed it. We can look for him to bring good from it while still recognizing the pain wrongdoing causes.

Both are true. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Genesis chapter 45 verses 3 through 11. Joseph said to his brothers, But his brothers were not able to answer him because they were terrified at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, When they had done so, he said, And now do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.

For two years now, there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years, there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, Lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. Now hurry back to my father and say to him, This is what your son Joseph says. God has made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down to me.

Don't delay. You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me. You, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds and all you have. I will provide for you there because five years of famine are still to come.

Otherwise, you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute. Let's pray. Father God, thank you for lovingly tending to our wounds. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Kirsten Holmberg and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.