The Loneliest Man

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading, titled The Loneliest Man, was written by Dave Brannon. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out of their lunar landing module and became the first humans to walk on the surface of the Moon. But we don't often think about the third person on their team, Michael Collins, who was flying the command module for Apollo 11.

After his teammates clambered down the ladder to test the lunar surface, Collins waited alone on the far side of the Moon. He was out of touch with Neil, Buzz, and everyone on Earth. NASA's Mission Control commented, not since Adam has any human known such solitude as Mike Collins.

There are times when we feel completely alone. Imagine, for instance, how Joseph, Jacob's son in Genesis 37, felt when he was taken from Canaan to Egypt after his brothers sold him. Then he was thrust into further isolation by being thrown in prison on false charges. How did Joseph survive in prison in a foreign land with no family anywhere nearby? Listen to this from verses 20 and 21.

While Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him. Four times we are reminded of this comforting truth in Genesis 39. Do you feel alone or isolated from others? Hold on to the truth of God's presence, promised by Jesus himself. Surely, I am with you always. With Jesus as your Savior, you're never alone.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Genesis chapter 39 verses 11 through 22. One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. She caught him by his cloak and said, Come to bed with me. But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, she called her household servants.

Look, she said to them, This Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us. He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house. She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. Then she told him this story, That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me.

But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house. When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, This is how your slave treated me, he burned with anger. Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him. He showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.

So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, when we experience deep loneliness, please help us to remember, as you've promised in the scriptures, that you're always with us, just as you were with Joseph. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.