“Everything Is against Me”

Hey there, friend. Welcome to this daily encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Today's reading titled Everything is Against Me was written by James Banks. This morning I thought I was worth a great deal of money.

Now I don't know that I have a dollar. Former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant said those words the day he was swindled out of his life savings by a business partner. Months later, Grant was diagnosed with incurable cancer.

Concerned about providing for his family, he accepted an offer from author Mark Twain to publish his memoirs, which he completed a week before he died. The Bible tells us of another person who faced grave hardships. In the book of Genesis, Jacob believed his son Joseph had been torn to pieces by a ferocious animal. Then his son Simeon was held captive in a foreign country and Jacob feared his son Benjamin would be taken from him as well.

Overcome he cried out, Everything is against me. But it wasn't. Little did Jacob know that his son Joseph was very much alive and that God was at work behind the scenes to restore his family. Their story illustrates how God can be trusted even when we can't see his hand in our circumstances.

Grant's memoirs proved to be a great success and his family was well cared for. Though he didn't live to see it, his wife did. Our vision is limited, but God's isn't. And with Jesus as our hope, if God is for us, who can be against us? May we place our trust in him today?

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Genesis chapter 42 verses 29 through 36. When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them. They said, The man who is lord over the land spoke harshly to us and treated us as though we were spying on the land. But we said to him, We are honest men.

We are not spies. We were twelve brothers, sons of one father. One is no more, and the youngest is now with our father in Canaan. Then the man who is lord over the land said to us, This is how I will know whether you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers here with me, and take food for your starving households, and go. But bring your youngest brother to me, so I will know that you are not spies, but honest men. Then I will give your brother back to you, and you can trade in the land. As they were emptying their sacks, there in each man's sack was his pouch of silver. When they and their father saw the money pouches, they were frightened. Their father Jacob said to them, You have deprived me of my children.

Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me. Would you pray with me? Father, when situations seem dire and we're losing hope, would you please help us to keep our eyes on you, knowing and trusting that you're always faithful. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Wes Ward, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.