All these things are against me.

Genesis 42:36-38, And their father Jacob said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and you would take Benjamin; all these things are against me.” Then Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “You may put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you; put him in my care, and I will return him to you.” But Jacob said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If harm should befall him on the journey you are taking, then you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.”

It’s far too easy for us to assume the worst. C. S. Lewis observed that we are too easily distracted by the imagination of ten thousand things that will never happen, perhaps missing the one thing that we need to do. The one thing that Jacob needed to do was to trust his youngest son to the journey, for in so doing he will receive all of his own back. Are we willing to hold the things of this world lightly to let God use them in His plans?

Show us ways to wisely use what You have entrusted to us to bring glory to Your name, Lord.