Sufficient

Often, when lawyers attempt to assist impoverished clients, we discover that legal problems are only the tip of an iceberg. There are, almost always, layers upon layers of difficulty with which these clients struggle on a daily basis. Such difficulties may include child abuse, teen pregnancy, urban violence, hunger, drug addiction, mental health issues, and homelessness.

When the law is insufficient to provide the clients seated before us an adequate solution, we can easily feel inadequate ourselves. At such times, the promises of the Lord may sound hollow.

Justice is not always achieved in this life. That does not make it any less worth fighting for.

But we cannot know the ways of the Lord. He is capable when we are not. He may be accomplishing some greater purpose we do not see or comprehend, a purpose extending across nations and generations.

When the biblical Joseph lay on his deathbed in Egypt, he elicited a promise from the children of Israel that they would one day return with his body to Canaan (Gen. 50: 25). Over two hundred years later [1], during the Exodus, Moses took the bones of Joseph along to the Promised Land, as that man of faith had requested (Ex. 13: 19).

“And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness’ ” (2 Cor. 12: 9).

Lord God, Your greatness is from everlasting to everlasting. But we are bound by the limitations of time and resources, beset by a thousand everyday cares.

When we lose heart at our inability to address the needs of others, remind us of Joseph. Remind us that only You are God – able to see the end from the beginning, able to meet all needs.

Trusting in Your sufficiency, may we, like Joseph, become exemplars of faith.

Amen
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[1] The Bible speaks of Abraham’s seed spending 400 years in subjugation, in a strange land (Gen. 15: 13). Scholars differ on when the stay and subjugation actually began. One analysis can be found at: Reformed Theology, Biblical Chronology, Vol. 10, No. 6, “The Moses Connection” by James Jordan, http://reformed-theology.org/ice/newslet/bc/bc.98.06.htm. This arrives at a figure of 215 years between Joseph’s death and the Exodus.

READERS CAN FIND MY VIEWS ON ABUSE AND ABUSE-RELATED ISSUES AT ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse  http://www.avoicereclaimed.com