Daily Devotions
The Second Blow
Reading for January 13th: Genesis 38-40
Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
Genesis 40:23
It's the second blow that gets you.
Have you ever noticed that? You can handle the flat tire, but when you get out to change it the rain starts to pour down on you. You lose your job, but just when you feel you've accepted this new reality you find out that you've got an expensive medical condition and you no longer have insurance. You forgive your husband for forgetting your anniversary, but then you find out that he lied to cover up what he was really doing that night.
It's when these things come in waves that we are really tested. Joseph was sold as a slave by his brothers, then unjustly thrown in jail by his master, and then forgotten by the butler. Job lost all of his possessions and children in a single day, then he loses his health and the support of his wife, and then his friends come to tell him he's being punished by God.
Most fighters can absorb a solid upper cut to the jaw. Great fighters can take on a combination of blows and stay on their feet. True champions are those who bravely get back up off the mat again and again after they've been knocked down by a superior opponent.
Which one are you?
"But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14)
Father God, grant us the strength and courage to keep getting back up no matter how many times the devil knocks us down today.
