It is Messy in the Middle

Bible Verse: “Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.” 

Psalm 62:6

 Song:  We Won’t Be Shaken by Building 429
“Whatever may come my way through fire or pouring rain, we won’t be shaken”

Let’s look at the story of Joseph, here is a young man at the beginning of his life, seventeen years old, one of the youngest of eleven children and his father’s favorite.  He is given a special robe, it was very beautiful and had every color you could imagine in it.  One-day Joseph had a dream, in the dream they were tying up bunches of grain out in the field when suddenly Joseph’s bunch stood up and all the others gathered around and bowed down to Joseph.  Joseph is at the beginning of his ministry.  It is new and exciting, it is easy in our beginnings to believe that God is good, easy for us to put in the time and effort for our new endeavor, whether it is a new relationship, a new job or a new opportunity, it is easy to have faith in the beginning. 

As time goes on in Joseph’s story, it starts to get a little messy – first his brothers sell him into slavery.  Is Joseph shaken?  No, he remains faithful to God and God remains faithful to him.  He is moved from servant to right hand man.  Sounds good, but wait…. now enters in Potiphar’s wife…. hold on people, this is about to get messy!  She tries to woo Joseph into her bed, and when he remains unshaken she gets mad and tells her husband that it was Joseph that put the moves on her!  You see, it is in the middle where the battle is fought and won or lost.  I am in a messy middle right now and as I think back, I realize that I have been in this middle land many times before and either quit, ran or left…. I lost.  This time, I am going to remain faithful to God, I am not going to be shaken – yup, it is messy alright – but God will remain faithful to me just like he does with Joseph. 

 The Middle Land is a stop we can’t skip, everyone must go thru the middle to get to their end.  It is easy to be shaken in the middle and to fall and not get up.  (Help I’ve fallen and can’t get up!).  “Whatever may come my way through fire or pouring rain, we won’t be shaken” is a line from the song for today and Psalm 62: 6 says “Truly he is my rock and my salvation, he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.” We stand on the promises of God and take refuge in His fortress and we move right thru the middle and get to our end. 

For Joseph, in the end his dream does come true, yes there was a messy middle of slavery, false accusations and prison, but in the end Joseph’s brothers did bow down to him and he was able to forgive them and provide for them and many others with the food they needed, many lives were saved in the end.

 Heavenly Father, praise your holy name, thank you for holding us close to you when we need you the most, in the messy middle. We stand in your fortress to keep from being shaken and we raise our hands up in worship to you today, standing on solid ground.  We love and adore You
Amen