You Have His Attention

By Greg Laurie, Op-ed contributor Tuesday, August 11, 2015

"The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace."
— Numbers 6:26

Greg Laurie, senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California and Harvest Orange County in Irvine, California, shares the Gospel with a sold-out crowd of 19,000 for Harvest America at the American Airlines Center and Victory Park in Dallas, Texas, Oct. 5, 2014. | (Photo: rever Hoehne for Harvest Ministries)

Have you ever been talking with someone who wasn't paying attention? Or to put it another way, have you ever been talking with someone who was texting? You're saying, "And so I said this—are you listening to me?"

"Yes."

"What did I just say?"

"Uh, I'm not sure."

Sometimes we wonder if it's the same way with God. We wonder whether we have His attention and if He is aware of what is happening to us when things aren't going that well.

Maybe Joseph felt that way at times. After all, he was only human. He had done all of the right things. He had resisted the advances of Potiphar's wife. But what happened? He was falsely accused of rape and thrown into a stinking Egyptian prison. How easily Joseph could have thought, This is just great. You serve the Lord, you do what God wants, and this is where it gets you. If I would have given in to Mrs. Potiphar, I wouldn't be here right now. I would be living in the lap of luxury. But here I am, suffering!

The Bible doesn't tell us that Joseph thought that, but I wonder if he did. Yet even while Joseph was in prison, God was still blessing him and preparing him for some awesome things. Joseph's best days were to come. God was preparing him to be someone who could handle those lessons. In the same way, everything we go through in life is preparation for something else.

When Numbers 6:26 says, "The LORD lift up His countenance upon you," that phrase "lift up His countenance" means "to lift up His face." Another way to translate it is "to look, to see, to know, to be interested, and to have one's full attention."

We have His full attention.

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