How many times have you needed an answer from God and was met with silence? Did you ever ask Him to work out a situation for you and yet, here you are, still waiting? Waiting is so hard. We fear what we don’t know and can’t see. Too often we fret over what we can’t control. Think of this as your winter season.
In winter, almost everything dies. It’s cold. Lonely. A time when you can clearly hear the echoing of your own voice. There’s beauty all around, but you’re stuck hearing the silence and feeling the loneliness.
I was reading the story of how Joseph became second in command in Egypt when another story jumped out at me. Here is Joseph fulfilling God’s plan, meeting a widespread need, and putting feet to the visions he had as a young boy while Jacob is over there half living. You see, Jacob, the same man that wrestled through the night and was called a prince of God, was in his winter season.
Jacob believed his beloved son was dead and completely lost hope in living. God could have easily sent word to him to comfort him or remind him of Joseph’s dreams, but He didn’t. Fifteen years have passed from the time we read that the seventeen-year-old Joseph is the favorite son, until he is about thirty-two-years-old seeing his brothers during the famine. For Jacob, that’s at least fifteen years of silence from God. Fifteen years of choosing to half live; to succumb to fear; and to live without hope.
I can only imagine the restrictions he placed on Benjamin due to his fear and over protectiveness, as shown in the scriptures. Then again, aren’t we just like Jacob at times when we don’t see that God’s been working things out all along? We struggle to believe. We doubt. We give up hope. We struggle with depression. I want to remember this story to help me choose to believe. Even though I can’t see it, He’s still working! I chose to believe.