Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net

Genesis chapter 39. I don't actually do something a little different for this episode of Pray the Word.

I want to read four different verses, two from the beginning of Genesis 39 and two from the end.

And as I read them, just listen for a phrase that you'll hear four times in each of these verses.

So first, Genesis chapter 39 verse 2, the Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master.

Then Genesis 39 verse 3, his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.

Then at the end of the chapter, Genesis chapter 39 verse 21, but the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him steadfast love, and gave him favor in the side of the keeper of the prison.

In the last verse, in the chapter, Genesis 39 23, the keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge, because the Lord was with him, and whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.

Did you hear it? Four different times in this one chapter, the Bible makes clear that we hear this phrase, the Lord was with Joseph.

And Joseph is in very different circumstances at the beginning and the end of this chapter, the beginning of this chapter he's elevated in Potiphar's house, and he's experiencing much success.

But then Potiphar's wife frames him for sexual immorality, and he is put in prison, and yet there in prison, the Lord was with Joseph, isn't this a powerful picture?

No matter what the circumstances are in our lives, when things are going relatively well, when things are totally falling apart,

regardless of what the circumstances are that we are walking through, the Lord is with us.

The Lord is with all who trust in him. There's a sense in which God is omnipresent. Of course, he's with us. He is everywhere, so that can be said about everywhere and everything, but there's a particular picture that we see in the Bible specifically in places like Genesis 39 here.

Where God is present with Joseph, in a way that God is leading, and guiding, and helping, and comforting, and strengthening Joseph with his presence.

And when you think about this phrase in Genesis 39, and you think about this phrase all over the Bible, God's saying to his people, over and over and over again, I am with you. I will be with you.

I will be with you. This is the end of the Great Commission, as Jesus sends out his disciples, and what does he say?

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age, and I just want to encourage you today, not knowing what's going on in your life, not knowing what you're walking through, not knowing what today holds for you, what tomorrow holds for you.

Maybe your circumstances are going really well right now, or maybe you're going through some really challenging days right now.

And maybe it's a lot of both of the above. There are some things that are great, and there are some things that are really challenging, regardless I just want to remind you in a fresh way today, that for all who trust in Jesus, for all who know God, no matter what the circumstances are,

that you are walking through. The Lord is with you. The Lord is with you in your successes. The Lord is with you in your failures. The Lord is with you on the mountaintop, the Lord is with you in the valley.

The Lord is with you in whatever you are facing. God, we praise you for this reality.

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