So you can once again the Lord's
help to grant me the ability to speak to you this evening.
I'd like you to turn with me to Genesis 42 and the text you'll
find in verse 36. And Jacob their father said unto
them, Me have ye bereaved of my children. Joseph is not and
Simeon is not and ye will take Benjamin away. All these things
are against me. Now we all know I'm sure very
well the story of Joseph and how he was favoured to have those
dreams, the prophetic dreams regarding his future and how
the stars round about him bowed down and the sheaves and how
he believed that they were his brothers and that jealousy and
envy that rose up in that family because of the favour that their
father showed upon Joseph and they made him that coat of many
colours. It also enhanced that jealousy
and with the dreams and the favour it drove them to want to kill
him. And then the day arrived when
Joseph went to visit his brethren and that plan was made and they
were going to kill him and instead they threw him into the pit and
sold him to Egypt. And there, unbeknown to them,
God began an amazing work in the life of Joseph. And all of
this is hidden behind the scenes to the knowledge of Jacob and
his family. Well to their knowledge he's
just a slave, to the knowledge of the brothers he's just a slave
being sold into Egypt to Jacob. He's been killed and he's no
more and yet behind all of their understanding God was at work
in a mighty way in the life of this young man. and how he is
providentially sold into Potiphar's house and there he becomes the
chief ruler of that house and then the incident regarding the
wife of Potiphar then it's like his whole life falls to bits
again and he's thrown back into jail and there he has to wait
and wait and wait until the butler and the baker come into the jail
and they have dreams and Joseph is able to to interpret those
dreams and those dreams come true. One is killed and one is
restored and for two years there he waits and he waits and then
in God's time he is brought to before Pharaoh to interpret the
dream of Pharaoh that God was going to bring about seven years
of plenty and then he was going to bring about seven years of
famine and so a lot of time had passed by and God was at work
in a wonderful way to preserve the life of Jacob and his family
and ultimately to establish the people of Israel as a mighty
nation and then to bring them out by the hand of Moses. And so What Jacob sees is taking
place is that his life is almost falling apart. He's in a famine. He's had to send his children
off to go and buy corn in Egypt. They come back and there's one
of them missing. He's held captive there in the jail. and when he
arrives back he hears that they're not allowed to go back there
unless Benjamin also goes with them and so he's in total despair. He forgets everything that God
has ever done for him and he's in total despair. He says you
have bereaved me of my children, Joseph is not, Simeon is not,
and will you take Benjamin away? All these things are against
me and as he saw it through the human eye, through the human
perspective of things everything was against him. There's a famine,
he's lost one child who he believes is dead, he's lost another one
who's in prison and he could lose another one and he says
no way my son shall not go down with you to Egypt and so he's
overcome by the situation that he has been presented with and
my thoughts were this that he forgot all of the great blessings
of God that took place in the years before. And how often that
is isn't it in the lives of people when there is an emergency situation
that takes place and everything comes upon us suddenly and our
lives are altered very quickly and we immediately look at things
through a human perspective and we crash. We forget the day of
our conversion and how the Lord blessed us. We forget the providential
pathway that he has led us through and how he has helped us up till
now. All of these things disappear
in our mind. And it's like Satan blinkers
us and we lose hope, we lose faith and we lose the ability
to see God and we say, everything is against me. All of these things
are against me. God is against me. The providence
is against me. My family are against me. Everything
is against me. And I'm just going to sit here
and I'm going to like sulk and I'm not going to do anything
about it. All these things are against
me. And he'd forgotten all that God had done for him. Remember Jacob, he was a twin
when he was born and he stole his brother's birthright
then he was sent away as he tricked his father. And as he was being
sent away on his journey the Lord appeared to him. in Genesis
28. Verse 12, And he dreamed, and
behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached
heaven. And behold, the angels of God
ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above
it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, the God
of Isaac. the land whereon thou liest to
thee will I give it and to thy seed and thy seed shall be as
the dust of the earth and thou shalt spread aboard to the west
and to the east and to the north and to the south and in thee
and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed
and behold I am with thee and will keep thee in all places
whether thou goest and I will bring thee again onto this land
for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have
spoken to thee of. What a promise in that special
moment where he had that dream where he says the Lord is in
the place And the Lord blessed him with this prophetic dream
regarding the Lord Jesus Christ, the angels of God ascending and
descending upon the Son of Man. And he receives that promise
that I am with you. and that God was going to keep
him in all places that he went and he was going to bring him
again back to his father's house and that God was going to be
with him. And yet in that moment as he receives the news that
Benjamin's got to go and as he sees the money and the sacks,
he says all these things, against me. The God that was for me,
the God that promised that he would be with me, he's abandoned
me and everything is just working out against me and I've got no
hope. And how often that is that we
do just forget the great promises of God just when we need them.
as we looked at the armour of God this morning, all held on
by faith and girded with truth, the shield of faith. And yet
when we need that shield, at that moment it's often that we
forget. We forget the promises. Our faith
dwindles and Satan uses it as an opportunity to come in like
a flood and to nearly destroy us. And as he does with Jacob
here, all these things are against me. I am with you and I will
keep you in all places whether you go. That was a promise of
God. And the Lord was with him. And the Lord was working behind
the scenes to bring about the help that he needed in the famine.
And yet he forgot to look up to God at his time of need. Not about the time when Jacob
was coming back to meet his brother Esau after he'd left Laban and
he brings his family, he brings all of his animals and he crosses
the brook and then he crosses back over and there he wrestles
with God. Genesis 32, and Jacob was left
alone and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of
day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he
touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh
was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And he said, let me
go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee
go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, what is
thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said,
thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince
thou hast had power with God and with man and hath prevailed.
And Jacob answered him and said, tell me, I pray thee thy name.
And he said, wherefore is it that thou dost ask my name? And
he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of
the place Peniel. For I have seen God face to face
and my life is preserved. What a blessing that is and what
a promise that he had been given. He'd seen God face to face, he'd
wrestled with the Lord. And yet, and in the time of trouble,
in the time of difficulty he forgets all his pathway, all
the experiences that he had, all the experiences in which
he could have drew from and he forgets them and he looks at
the providential situation and he declares all these things
were against him. Trouble had clouded his view
of God. sorrow we could say had clouded
his mind Like Simon Peter, we often refer to him when he's
walking on the sea and he sees the waves and the wind and he's
afraid and he begins to sink. How often that is how the people
of God are. Christ is there, the promises
are there and our hope is there, the ability to persevere is there,
the armour is there. But we take our eyes off all
of those things and we're so distracted that our minds are
clouded and we lose sight of God and his promises and his
ability to help us and intervene with us and take control of the
situations. And so our vision is clouded. Our minds are clouded. We're
overcome with emotion and trouble and stress. And we say, all these
things are against me. Fear had got him. He said, well,
Joseph is not, Simeon is not. Will you take Benjamin away also?
He was afraid. They was losing his children.
After God had promised him that he was the one who was going
to carry on that promise that his children would be as the
sand of the sea, yet fear came. He lost sight of that promise
and he says, my son is not going with you. Fear took hold of him. And it doesn't matter how long
you and I have walked with the Lord, some trials just take us by surprise. We may have walked with the Lord
for many years, we may be established in the truth, we may even be
confident that we are good and faithful Christians and yet something
can come in a moment and almost knock us down by surprise and
we lose sight of everything. That long walk with God, all
those great experiences that we've had, all
those great answers to prayer that we have had just almost
vaporise in a moment and we lose sight of everything and we say,
God's forgotten me. He's abandoned me. All these
things are against me. How can this work together for
my good even though we know the promises of God are there? And
we can quote them and we examine the difficulty and we say, well,
how can this work for my good? How can this work for my benefit?
It's totally destroying me. It's totally overwhelming me. And we say all these things,
they are against me. And so even if we've walked with
the Lord, like Jacob was an old man, yet took him by surprise. His mind was clouded by the problem,
by the sorrow and by the fear. I thought of Ruth. You know,
Ruth walked a, or Naomi walked a bitter pathway. Losing her
husband, losing her sons in a foreign land and then making her journey
back to Bethlehem and one of her daughter-in-laws deciding
to go back to Moab and she tries to reason with them. In Ruth
1 chapter 13 or verse 12 she says, turn my daughters and go
your way for I am too old to have a husband and if I should
say I have hope and should have a husband also tonight and should
also bear sons. Would you tarry for them till
they were grown? Would you stay for them from
having husbands? Nay, my daughters, for it grieveth
me much for your sakes. Now the hand of the Lord is gone
out against me." And that's how she felt. She looked at her life
and we can understand all that had taken place and you can understand
how she felt. that she had followed her husband
into a foreign land, she'd seen her family fall to bits, her
husband died, her sons died, and now she says, just go back
to your own land. Go and start your life again
with your family. God is angry with me. God's hand
has gone out against me. You don't want to hang around
with me because I'm just going to bring more and more problems.
I can't satisfy you. I can't give you any more sons.
I can't give you husbands. The hand of the Lord has gone
out against me. Until we know that One of the
daughter-in-laws turns away, Orpha turns away, but Ruth claves
or sticks to her mother-in-law. And they make their way to Bethlehem
and the people ask the question, is this Naomi? They see her,
they recognize her face. Maybe she's obviously got a lot
older. And they ask the question, is this Naomi? You know, stress.
and a difficult life. It marks people's faces. It marks
people's lives. You can tell the life that a
person has had by the look on their face. Those who have been
through much trouble have faces that are marked by trouble and
stress and sorrow. Those who have had lives of alcoholism
and rough living, their faces are marked by being out in the
sun, by having that constant stress and strain of living. And you wonder, well, maybe Naomi. Maybe her face was marked by
the stress that she had been through, living in a foreign
country, losing her children and her husband, and then walking
all the way back. Is this Naomi? And she says to them, Call me
not Naomi, but call me Mara. For the Almighty hath dealt very
bitterly with me, I went out full, and the Lord hath brought
me home again empty. Why then call me Naomi, seeing
the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted
me?' And that's what she saw of her life. that she saw that
God had dealt very bitterly and very hard with her and her family
and that the Almighty had afflicted her. But unbeknown to her, God
was working out his own purposes unseen, as it were, by bringing
Ruth back to Bethlehem. And so Naomi had to walk through
this hard pathway of difficulty and sorrow that marred her very
image. But God was still at work. God's plan was hidden from her
view. God's plan was hidden from Jacob's
view. But just because God's plan is
hidden does not mean he's not at work. He is always at work
in the lives of his people. He has said all things work together
for their good. And just because we don't see
the good of it doesn't mean that there is no good that is going
to come out of it. There is always an underlying
working of God's hand. And that's easy to read, isn't
it? We like to read those books of missionaries and Christians
that have achieved something for the Lord and you read their
lives, you read of that John John Patton who went out into
the outer Hebrides and the things that he went through having to
bury his wife and having to guard his wife's grave so that the
savages would not dig up her body and eat it. And he said
that if there was a famine in that land the grass would grow
on the grave of my wife because of the tears that I had wept
over it. It's easy to read these things
but to actually walk through them is the hard part. You see it's easy to read about
Jacob and say all these things are against me and you skim over
it but that's how he really felt. As he looked around about him,
he believed that Joseph was dead. We understand that Joseph's in
the palace and having been greatly used of God. We can read about
Ruth and Naomi and understand that Ruth is going to be married
to Boaz and Boaz is going to be in the line of the Lord Jesus
Christ and we can look over all of these things. But those people
as they walk out of the will of God don't understand or are
unable to see the future of what their suffering and sorrow is
going to bring about. And so they say when they look
at everything round about them, the Almighty has afflicted me.
He's dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full and I've
come back empty. Change my name. I don't want
to be called Naomi anymore. I want to be called Myra. All
of these things are against me. And she could say I'm sure the
same. All these things are against
me. And I'm sure that we have in our lives looked at everything
and we've said You know, everything is against me. It's just like
a wave upon wave, difficulty upon difficulty, billow upon
billow, pressing against us. And we say, everything is against
me. Our mind is clouded. Our view
of God is clouded. The promises that we so loved
seem to vanish away. But behind everything, God is
still at work. Although Jacob thought everything
was against him, little did he know that Joseph had an abundant
supply. Jacob saw famine in the providence
of God, Joseph had a storehouse of food that could feed a nation
for seven years. God had already been at work
prior to this in bringing about his will in the life of Joseph
to preserve Jacob and his family. And often we forget, don't we,
that God has that foreknowledge of events and he works things
according to his own purposes to bring about his own will to
move people into certain places to bring something about that
is going to happen in years to come. In the lives of believers
they can look back at even their unregenerate state and they can
see the Lord's hand in their lives even as they are unconverted. That he guided them into a certain
way. He enabled them to study in a certain way. He moved them
to a certain place that they could be useful when they were
converted in a certain area. And so prior even to their knowledge
of their own salvation God is at work in their life ordering
and orchestrating events to bring about his own will. In my life
I bought a house in Hastings when I was 18 or 19 I think. I was unconverted, I had no concern
for my soul whatsoever. I bought a house there in St
Andrew's Square. My plan was to do it up and to
rent it but during that time I was converted Married Elsie. We ended up moving to Hastings.
We ended up coming to Hastings Chapel. At Hastings Chapel I
was baptized. At Hastings Chapel I was sent
out to preach. At Hastings Chapel I was sent out to Kenya and back
to Hastings Chapel. And even in my unconverted state
I can see the Lord's hand moving things. I wanted to be a chef. Work experience. I worked in
the Grand Hotel. But I found I didn't like it.
It was too hot. I wanted to be outside. And so
I ended up working on a building site. And then my building skills
was used when I went to Kenya. And so God altered the course
of my life to bring about the purposes of his will that he
would use me when I was converted. And so he has knowledge of future
events that he brings about his own purposes. And so he allowed
Joseph's brothers to be overcome by jealousy and to sell him into
Egypt. But as Joseph says, you meant
it for evil, but God meant it for good. Genesis 45. from verse five,
that as Joseph begins to speak to his brothers, from verse four
it says, and Joseph said to his brethren, come near to me, I
pray you. And they came near and said,
I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now therefore
be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither,
for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two
years hath famine been in the land and yet there are five years
in which there shall be neither earing nor harvest. And God sent
me before you to preserve your posterity in the earth and to
save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent
me here but God. And he has made me a father to
Pharaoh and a lord of all his house and a ruler throughout
the land of Egypt. That's how Joseph saw it. He
was able in his heart to forgive his brothers for what they had
done because he saw the greater picture of God. He saw the greater
plan of God. using his brothers as an instrument
of evil to sell him to Egypt yet to bring about God's own
purposes. He says it wasn't you that sent
me here but it was God. God sent me before you to preserve
you and to save your lives turn to the end of the end of the
chapter when they are very afraid that Joseph is going to turn
on them after their father dies. Genesis 50 and Joseph's in verse
19. And Joseph said unto them fear
not for am I in the place of God but as for you ye thought
evil against me but God meant it unto good to bring to pass
as it is this day to save such much people alive now therefore
fear ye not I will nourish you and your little ones and he comforted
them and spoke kindly unto them. God meant it for good. He meant it
for evil but God meant it for good. And so in their lives they're
able to see the providential hand of God working all of these
things out and in the life of Ruth as Naomi saw Ruth grow and
be established in Bethlehem and then to be married to Boaz no
doubt she was able to look, oh I can see why we had to go to
Moab. I can see why my husband and
my children had to die. I can see why I had to come back
here with this girl so that she would be the wife of Boaz then
ultimately in the line of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so God
is able through all of these things to work out his perfect
plan. And so as Jacob said, all these things are against
me. But they were not against him.
God means to do good to his people. He does good to his people even
if we don't know what he's doing. we looked at I think when Joshua
Jemson passed away and the poem that his mother quoted about
the tapestry and she said there that the gold threads are as
needful as the black threads to make the perfect picture of
God's plan. And so as this black thread was
being woven into the life of Jacob yet he was not able to
see the full extent of the picture that God was working things for
good, greater than he could ever, ever imagine. His son, who he
thought was dead, was alive and was second in command in Egypt
and he had an abundant supply of food for him and even place
and provender for his animals in the land of Goshen. even in the life of the Lord
Jesus Christ when we read about the Lord Jesus Christ and when
we look on it externally we can say that it
looked like all these things were against him. As we see him
born in that town of Nazareth and even one of the Nathaniel,
I think, says, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? We see
him there. We see him growing up. We see
him in his ministry. We see the Jews opposing and
the Pharisees opposing the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
see one of his own apostles raising up against him and selling him
and then betraying him with a kiss. And when you look at it, Externally
you could say all these things were against him but as we know
ultimately that was bringing about the perfect plan of God
in salvation. That Christ had to die, he had
to be sold into the hands of sinful men to fulfill prophecy
and to bring about the will of God. We read this morning the Bible
study in Acts chapter 2 it says verse
22. You men of Israel hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you by
miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst
of you as yourselves know him being delivered by the determined
counsel and foreknowledge of God you have taken by wicked
hands and crucified as slain whom God hath raised up, having
loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
be holden of it. And so as he was externally looking
at the life of Christ, it seemed that his mission had failed. And no doubt that's what Satan
thought, that the mission of Christ has failed. But he was delivered by the predetermined
counsel and foreknowledge of God to be crucified upon the
cross. cursed is everyone that hangs
upon a tree. It was the way in which God had
determined the Lamb of God should be slain and lifted up and that
whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting
life and so through what looked like a failure, God was accomplishing
his own purposes of salvation to redeem his people. And so
as we look at our lives maybe we see things that we don't understand,
that we can't fully work out, that it seems that God has made
a mistake, that our lives seem to have been altered in a certain
way which we might not want them to have been altered in that
way. And we might say all these things
are against me but we have lost sight of God's ultimate plan. they are not against you and
he can never work against his people. He works for them and
for their good to bring about his own purposes. Joseph had an abundant store
Christ also has an abundant store, an abundant supply of grace and
mercy and provision for all who would come to him. Jacob, he
says to his brothers, to his brethren, there's nothing here.
To his son, sorry. In chapter 42 verse 1, now Jacob
saw that there was corn in Egypt And Jacob said unto his sons,
Why do you look one upon another? And he said, Behold, I have heard
there is corn in Egypt. Get you down there and buy for
us from thence that we may live and not die. And the preachers
say, don't they, why do you look one to another? There is an abundant
supply in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why are you not going to him
for that abundant supply? Why are you not being satisfied
by him from that abundant supply? Go to him. Your life is in a
famine. He has the abundance. He has
the provision. He is able to provide. Why do
you look one upon another? Go to the Lord Jesus Christ and
buy from him. It's free. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
is free. If you remember that we looked
at on Wednesday in the book of Luke chapter 11 And there the man who had a friend
come to him at midnight then goes to his other friend, the
friend who he believed would have the ability to help him.
And so he goes to his friend's house and he begins knocking
upon the door asking his friend for help. And his friend reluctantly
rises from his bed and provides him with the things that he needs
and He doesn't do it willingly. He does it begrudgingly because
his friend has disturbed him and is persistent, but he provides. And we said there that if we
remember the Lord Jesus Christ, we go to him because he has the
abundant supply. He is the bread of life. And
if you knock upon the door, he will open the door, not out of
annoyance because you have been persistent, but he will open
it out of love and he will provide everything that you need. He
has an abundant supply like Joseph. Joseph had an abundant supply
and he received his brethren to himself and he forgave them
of their sin and their horrible way in which they doubt
with him. And Jesus Christ will forgive
you if you come to him for that that you need, that bread of
life to satisfy your never-dying soul. If you come to him with
that barrenness within your heart, nothing in my hand I bring, he
has promised to satisfy and provide all that you need. In Matthew 15 verse 25 there is that lady there
who came to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Canaanite woman, and she
came to him with a similar situation like Jacob. All these things
are against me. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil and nobody wants to help me. My life is completely
difficult and I have no hope. So I've come to you the Lord
Jesus Christ asking for help but it seems that the Lord Jesus
Christ doesn't want to help her. And if we look at Joseph, it
seemed like he didn't want to help his brothers. He sort of
spoke roughly to them and hindered their progress in receiving what
they wanted. And it seems like for this lady,
that the Lord Jesus Christ didn't give her exactly what she wanted
immediately. He kept her waiting and he kept
her knocking and he kept her asking. He says, I am not sent
but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Matthew 15,
verse 23, verse 24. Then came she and worshipped
him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It
is not meet or right or suitable to take the children's bread
and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord, Yet
the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from the master's table. And the Lord answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as
thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
that very hour. And so he didn't answer her immediately
or give her what she wanted immediately. He leads her on a thought process to draw out
what is really going on in her heart, what is really going on
in her mind. sometimes that is how the the
Lord works. In fact often that's how he works.
He doesn't answer us immediately for the things that we need.
He brings us to a point in which we have no hope in ourselves,
in which we have to continually pour out the very depths of our
hearts it draws out of us what we really and truly want. As we said before if a thing
is not pressing we only pray for it once and then we forget
about it but those things that are truly pressing needs are
continually in our prayers and they are drawn out of us by the
the external pressures of the pathway that we are passing through. Like this lady, she had no hope
of herself. All these things are against
me and the only person that can help me is the Lord Jesus Christ
and so I'm going to go to him and I'm going to persist at his
door until he answers my request. The man with his friend. He's
going to persist at the door until the door is opened because
he knows there's an abundant supply inside and that that friend
there should be willing to help him. And we as believers are
able to lay these things at the throne of grace knowing that
Christ has an abundant storehouse of grace and mercy for his people
and has the ability to help us in our time of need. so Jacob he had to go through
this process before the Lord allowed him to see Jacob. He had to go through a proving
process to be brought to nothing, to be brought to the bottom of
the ladder to enable him to begin walking up to the top of the
ladder to see his son at the right hand of Pharaoh, one of
the most powerful people in the whole world. And so the Lord
brought him to this point. All these things are against
me. We know that God was at work,
behind the scenes, out of his sight. bringing about his own
purposes. Romans 8 28 tells us all things
work together for good to those who love God and to those who
are called according to his purposes and to those people who are the
Lord Jesus Christ's. They are brought to those extremities
as we have said this morning because our life is a battle.
Our faithfulness to our master, to our captain must be proved. We must be trained, we must be
equipped and we must be tested to prove our faithfulness to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Jacob said all these things
are against me,' Joseph says. God sent me here to preserve
life. Christ can say God sent me here
to preserve life and he preserved the life and he gave eternal
life to all of his people although his own life from the external
point of view looked like everything was against him yet that life
was working to bring about the salvation of his people and then
as he ascends up to the right hand of the father he gives the
Holy Spirit of God to each of his beloved children to help
them walk the narrow way that leads to life. All of these things
are against me. The Bible, God says, all of these
things work for the good of his people. Help us, we say, oh Lord
help us to remember that blessed promise. Amen. Our closing hymn is hymn number
996. While the dear saints of God
below travel this vale of sin and woe, there is a river through
the road makes glad the city of our God. Hymn number 996 to
the tune 418. The holy child of Salem was bearing. And all its streams with cheer
afound With comfort, joy, and peace abound ? Tis virtues of pure illumination
? ? How sweet the sound ? ? Deep river through the desert plain
? ? Forever never to dim ? Resting poor unneeding souls,
For you this wondrous favor owes. Good sin and sorrow make you
sigh, Yet drink and bend, your heart be glad. May heaven forever bless his
name, from earthly strains Drink, all the fountains of love's
truth. Drink, Lord, he says, whoever
pleases. Dear Lord, we thank Thee for
the promises of Thy Word that give Thy people encouragement
to persevere in trial. And we pray, Lord, that when
we do enter into those times of life that our minds are clouded
by difficulty and sadness, that Thou appear to us and help us
to lay hold of the promises of Thy Word. that we will be enabled
to press on and not to say like Jacob, all these things are against
me. We pray, Lord, that thou help
us to lay hold of thy promise that all things work together
for good to those who love thee. And we pray Lord that we may
love thee more to be with us now as we part from each other
to help us to meditate upon thy word and to return us here on
Wednesday according to thy will. And now may the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father with the fellowship
and the communion of the Holy Spirit to be with us now and
forevermore. Amen.