For 2020, I have chosen Isiah 41:10 as my personal verse. This lead into a theme for this year’s His Encouragement posts. Each week, I will be looking at another “fear not” of the Bible. I hope that as we journey together through these verses that we all will learn a little more about trusting God and rooting out the fear in our lives.

And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?

Genesis 50:19 KJV

In our passage today, Jacob has died and Joseph’s brothers are afraid that now that their father is gone, Joseph will enact revenge on them for the terrible things they did to him. Joseph assures them that this is not the case. This is his response: “And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good…”

Joseph acknowledges that while his brothers thought evil against him, God had a plan in all of it and brought about good in all of their lives. I believe that most cases of revenges stems from fear. We think that if we don’t make the person who hurt us pay for what they did, then they’ll get away with it. Think about Joseph’s words, “am I in the place of God?” When we revenge a wrong we are putting ourselves in the place of God. Scripture tells us that vengeance belongs to God. His timing in not the same as our timing.

While the interpretation of this Scripture is about revenge, I feel led to apply it in a slightly different way.

When I was a little girl, my church had a framed poem hanging in the bathroom. I think I read it every single time I was in there. It went like this,

Let Go and Let God

As children bring their broken toys with tears for us to mend,
I brought my broken dreams to God because He is my friend.
But then instead of leaving Him in peace to work alone, 
I hung around and tried to help with ways that were my own.
At last I snatched them back again and cried, "How can you be so slow?" 
"My child," He said, "What could I do? You never did let go."                                                                   

Is there any situation in your life that you are putting yourself in the place of God? Are you trying to fix something that’s outside of your control? Are you hanging onto dreams that are slipping through your fingers? Are you working desperately to keep something bad from happening to yourself or someone else? Have you taken up offense for someone else? Have you allowed worry, doubt, and fear to sabotage your faith? Have you pushed God out of the picture because you’ve got it all under control and you don’t need His help? Are you afraid that if you let go/stop trying/stop fighting then everything will fall apart?

You are putting yourself in God’s place. Let go of your fears and allow Him to take his rightful place in your life. Allow him to work in His own time. He can fix things you never thought possible. He can mend broken hearts and broken lives. You can’t. He can restore dreams and relationships. You can’t. He can bring peace and healing. You can’t.

Whatever you are trying to do without him. Let go and let God.

What scripture is encouraging you today? Share it with us!

Check out these other blogs for more encouragement from God’s word for your Thursday.

Nicole @ Christian Fiction Girl

Trisha @ Joy of Reading

Jessica @ A Baker’s Perspective 

Jacquelyn @ A Heavenly Home

Becca @ The Becca Files

Jenny @ Author Jenny Lynn

Rebecca @ Rev. Rebecca Writes

Andi @ Radiant Light

Leslie @ Words of Hope