August 13, 2025 – Nasa
Max – John 9:25 – “One thing I do know, I was blind but now I see!” Indeed! Of course this is focusing on faith, but it applies to my physical vision as well. God speaks to me, about my faith and about my life and daily concerns, through words everywhere: in the Bible of course, in these devotions, on billboards, on TV, on the radio etc. This time last week I was walking (and driving!) around with a screen over the vision in my left eye, but today it is so much better. The haze is in the periphery most of the time and the floaters sometimes float away when I blink. I haven’t seen that huge spider again thankfully, but I do think bugs are on the walls at times. But I can see! And I’m so very grateful for that! Our “date” for follow up appointments with the retina specialist (who is also Don’s mom’s doctor) are Friday morning.
The emotions Max describes in the devotion today about getting his first pair of glasses (in 5th grade) is what I’ve seen in Don this summer as he has marveled at how much better he sees after getting his first real pair of glasses a few months ago. He’s had good vision all of his life and only started using readers at that time in life that hits most everyone (or maybe earlier for him because of the leukemia). Don still thinks that the new glasses contributed in some way to our issues the past two weeks. I guess it could be too much of a coincidence that we both had trouble around the same time shortly after both getting new glasses. We also wondered if maybe the remodeling we’ve been doing had contributed to the issues, but the doctors said no. It’s age and nearsightedness. Who knows? God does and none of this took Him by surprise. He walked with us opening doors and providing solutions – even surprising us with the car at the end of a tough week.
Good fathers give good gifts to their children – sometimes even better than they expected. Our heavenly Father is a great Father and He gives the most thoughtful, useful, and even surprising gifts. That makes me think of the huge red cherry ball our granddaughter was holding when we arrived at the birthday lunch on Sunday. They had gone to Six Flags the day before (for the main birthday gift) and she had wanted that cherry when she’d seen it at one of the booths, but her parents said it was too expensive. Sometime just before they left to go home, a young girl approached with a huge red cherry and offered it to our granddaughter because her family was not going to be able to take it home with them for some reason! God cares about details like that in our lives.
The theme this week for the 6am prayer service is More of God in Our Relationships. Today’s focus was humility and the pastor brought a great message, but as I started reading Prevail 225 today, it made me think to yesterday when the pastor was talking about the grace, rather than the anger, Joseph showed when his brothers humbled themselves and asked for help in Genesis 42:10. [When I first opened the Max book, the page marker was on a previous day with the title, “Ask For Help.” It’s just so interesting how God prepares me for the message He is going to weave through our time together.]
During the personal prayer time yesterday, Don looked up and studied the word “forgive” and pointed out, as some of you may already know, that the famous verse we all quote at times from Genesis 50:20, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good…” was not said when Joseph first saw his brothers. We talked through this yesterday and it was quite interesting, but as I was writing this this morning, I stopped to go read the story to verify exactly what happened and when. Chapter 50 was near the end of the Bible’s story of Joseph, but the brothers came to Egypt for grain during the famine back in Chapter 42; so, it took eight chapters for Joseph to get to that kind of grace and forgiveness. Actually, Joseph’s story starts five chapters earlier in Chapter 37.
Don and I were talking about something this morning in our debriefing after the prayer service (that we have both come to look forward to each day) that totally relates (at least in my mind) to all of this. I’m thinking ahead and not keeping up with writing what I’m thinking so I’m probably not making sense. This is exciting though! THIS is what I imagine “studying” the Bible is like for so many preachers and lay leaders who tell the rest of us we should do it for ourselves rather than just learning from them.
Don was talking about our blessings and wondering why others seem so burdened at times. I reminded him that he has had quite a mountain of issues and traumas to climb, as have I, at times. We are both grateful for God seeing us through those seasons and for helping us to recognize our current blessings. Sometimes we look at peoples’ troubles and wonder what they’ve done to deserve them – we shouldn’t. Certainly we have consequences to some choices we make but we don’t “deserve” bad things to happen to us because of sin, or for any other reason, as Zophar suggests to Job in chapter 11. I would say though that God does seem to allow lessons to come upon us as he works to mature and change us. I’ve heard that if we don’t learn the lesson, it keeps repeating in one way or another. So, maybe that’s why some seasons of difficulty last longer than others and not just for some people but for all of us because we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23
This is just me thinking aloud (and to Don earlier) about these seasons of lessons, but I began wondering about Joseph. In all of the sermons and studies I’ve heard and read, he is painted as a patient, tolerant, and forgiving man, but I have always wanted to know “the rest of the story” of what he was thinking and saying in the pit and in jail; and, though we are not told any of that, I inferred something about his humanity as I began reading chapter 42. When the brothers first appeared to him, he didn’t embrace them. He didn’t send them off with blessings and grain. He accused them in verse 9 (and elsewhere) of being spies and frightened them with his power. That doesn’t seem like a man who had evolved very far past his grudges and unforgiveness.
In Prevail 225, Larson writes, “Our flesh pulls us toward the very things that drain the life and purpose right out of us.” Don’t you know Joseph had a lot of alone time (in the pit and in jail) to brood and stew as well as a lot of alone time with God to hear from Him. He didn’t have the Bible or devotion books or sermons to direct him. I assume he had the Word that was stored in his heart and probably God was there working in him to let go and forgive and continue to do right no matter what. I assume he must have gained perspectives at times, but then maybe still had more lessons to learn and ended up imprisoned and alone where he could think and pray and endure more estrangement from the world.
Perhaps, even though he may have heard the message of forgiveness during all those years, represented between chapter 37 and chapter 42, and though he believed and repented and thought he’d forgiven his brothers, his flesh was ignited when he saw his offenders there in front of him. I’ve been there. Professing forgiveness (over and over sometimes) and then being confronted with the person or even just the memory and having those feelings well up again. Our pastor reminded us yesterday that, “Forgiveness has nothing to do with the other person” and that forgiveness only takes one person. We forgive to release ourselves (from damaging anguish) not the offender (from responsibility and repentance).
I think it took a bit for Joseph to get to the humility and grace part of forgiving and releasing, but he got there. What he’d heard and believed and professed finally manifested in him, but it wasn’t until chapter 50 that he said the lines. And that seems like it was the final lesson/test, so to speak, or at least the final one that God showed us in Joseph’s life in the Bible. Don pointed out that this understanding of God’s purpose came on the heels of another treachery by the brothers when they lied about what their father said (verse 17) or rather what he didn’t say. Whether Joseph knew of their lie (or perhaps even recognized the potential for it), he finally reacted with the understanding that God had instilled in him rather than with dredging up the grudge.
Don said it’s interesting that the Hebrew word used for “forgive” is nasa which has a range of meanings: to lift up a burden, to raise up, to forgive and AI in Google says it means ‘to lift, carry, bear, or take….bearing a burden…to forgive in some instances.” The first use of the word nasa is when Cain is driven away after murdering his brother. He felt he had an unforgiveable sin – too large to nasa. During Monday’s prayer sermon, the pastor talked about the kinds of debts we can never repay or get out of on our own – the kinds we need a Savior to pay for us.
I had to stop at this point in my studies to take Don’s phone to him at the rental house where he was working on his day job while the HVAC was being installed so he could be there in case they had any questions. While I was out, I ran to the nearby Wednesday farmer’s market to pick up my wheatgrass shots from Emily at her booth (they aren’t very appetizing but they are shots so they go down quickly and have many health benefits). I found out that she has had the laser repair on her retina; and, the way she spoke about it, made it seem like it was recent, but it was eight years or so ago. I was shocked when she said it was worse than childbirth because that’s exactly what I was thinking as he pulsed that green light and pushed with that prod! She even physically recoiled as she described how she tried to disappear into the chair. It felt so good to know someone not only sympathized (as so many have), but truly understood the shock and pain of the experience. Then the woman who walked up to by microgreens, and had been listening, said she’d had the laser repair as well! What are the odds? Maybe it’s more common than I knew.
When I got home, I watched “Better Together” on TBN while I put the groceries away and ate some of the fresh focaccia bread. The topic was “Caring for Your Mind” and I would put the link to it here, but I couldn’t find that particular episode. I usually take notes when things speak to me, like they were today about anxiety and trusting God, but there was too much for me to write (thus why I was looking for the link), but I did write this that was said near the end, “One woman can make a difference in the world.” Sweet. Thank You for that encouragement, God.
Back to Prevail 225 and then, because this has gotten long, I’ll let you go! “But you know this today: He will save you from your sin if you allow Him to. He wants life for you, wholeness for you, freedom for you.” Amen!
(Note: Mentioning focaccia bread, which I really didn’t need to take up space with, makes me think of the books I’ve been listening to by Nicky Pellegrino, all of which seem to be based in Italy. If you’re looking for good company and inspiring descriptions of all kinds of food by a woman with an appealing accent, I highly recommend this author! Oh and if you want to get in touch with Emily Lawrence to ask about or buy microgreens and/or wheatgrass shots here’s her number: 205-907-1478
