This morning’s word is Anchored in Presence.
The anchor verse is Genesis 39:21.
“But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love.”
Joseph was in Egypt. He had not chosen Egypt. He had been sold into it by his own brothers, carried south against his will, and put to work in a foreign house. By any measure he was in the wrong place. But the verse does not say the Lord delivered Joseph from Egypt. The verse says the Lord was with Joseph in Egypt.
That distinction is the whole word for today.
Anchoring is not the same as fixing. Anchoring is the gift of presence inside a circumstance, before the circumstance changes. Joseph’s life would eventually move. But before it moved, the Lord was with him. The presence came first. The change came later.
This morning I read a letter in 1440 from a woman named Carla in Las Vegas. Her mother died two years ago on her 92nd birthday. As Carla went through her mother’s things, she found little notes her mother had tucked away in books, cookbooks, and tin cans. The notes were love handwritten forward into a future the mother would not live to see.
That is anchoring in presence. The mother could not stop her dying. She could not fix what Carla was about to feel. But she could leave her presence in places her daughter would find it later. Notes in tin cans. Love that arrived when Carla needed it most.
Presence does not require resolution. A mother who is gone can still be present to her daughter through a note in a cookbook. The Lord who has not yet opened the door can still be present to the one who is waiting. Pentecost itself is a story about presence first and outcome later. The disciples were not told what the Spirit would do. They were told to wait until the Spirit came.
I am asking myself today where I am tempted to wait for the door to open before I trust GOD is near. Where I am measuring HIS presence by whether the circumstance has changed. Where I am still in my version of Egypt and forgetting that the Lord is with me here.
The Lord was with Joseph. That is the line that holds the whole day. Not when Joseph was promoted. Not when the dream came true. While he was still in the place he had not chosen.
So today the prayer is simple.
Lord, anchor me in YOUR presence today. Not after the situation changes. Not when the work loads correctly. Not when the door opens. Now. Help me trust that YOU are with me in the place I am, and let that be enough for today.
I am not here to prove myself. I am here to make HIM visible.