We are what we own.
By that we mean we identify with our possessions. Our cars, our homes, our clothing. We may never drive on a racetrack, but buy a sporty car, and we feel like we own a bit of NASCAR. Purchase a home in a finer subdivision, and we feel like a more important person. Our clothes become our statement of position and power. If we wear Ralph Lauren, we exude class by association.
To turn loose of what we own is to lose our place in the world. We are wrested free from our foundations and set adrift. We are in flux. It’s a horrid feeling not to be connected in some way or form.
Yet, to turn loose is the only way to move on to something new.
Joseph in Genesis is considered an archetype of Christ. He faced abandonment by his brothers, abuse by his captors, and time in prison. He also rose to become the savior of Egypt, and in the process, gifted life on those who had cast him aside in the first place.
God had to strip everything aside for Joseph’s brothers and the people of Egypt to submit to God’s strategy for their salvation.
Genesis 47:18 reveals the core of God’s plan.
“When that year was ended, [the people] came unto [Joseph, saying,] there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands.”
People are people. They are what they own. Until they had to give up everything for survival, they would never submit to change. God provided the opportunity. It seemed like a famine, but in reality, it was the hand of God giving them a chance for new life.
What do we cling to instead of God? We have two choices. The first is to give those things up and walk after God. The second is to have God strip them from us so we will walk after him.
Joseph’s brothers prospered for many years in Egypt, living off the best of the land. However, first they had to cast their old life off. They had to be willing to follow God’s plan, even when it meant walking away from everything they had once claimed as their own.
Finding God today is the same. We find him when we strip away who we are and let him remake us into what he wants us to be.
When we take off the world, God can dress us in his best.
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Code: FGO.E.27.15c.vp.kjv