The Result of Grace and a Prayer

God spoke to me through his Word today in my daily devotional time. I am reading Great Days with Great Lives by Chuck Swindoll. Today the passage was Genesis 43: 31-34. It is so interesting to me how God's word is so full and says so much in few words and that without his help we can miss so much. It is like He has something different to show us each time we read a passage. I am also grateful for the wonderful pastors and writers like Dr. Swindoll that he uses to teach us things.

So today I learned about the result of grace given by one man to another. Joseph was a man who had much to be bitter about. His brothers had treated him horribly as had the Egyptians, but here he was forgiving his brothers and giving them more than they deserved. He fixed them a feast. At the beginning of the feast they were afraid and anxious but by verse 34, "they feasted and drank freely with him." His forgiving spirit replaced fear with happiness. True acceptance and love smooths anxious hearts and brings deep joy and peace.

Oh, LORD may I forgive like Joseph. Many of us who work where I work have been hurt deeply and it can be so hard to forgive. We need so much to be happy again. But we have been given so much grace and forgiven of so much by you. Teach me how to forgive the way Joseph did and to be an instrument of grace.