Nick Meeder | Way Finders

As I read through the narrative of Joseph, I am amazed time and time again at God’s work in it. It gives me hope that God works in our lives just the same. Do you see God working in your life? I used to not see God at work in my life because I didn’t look for it. I demanded a blatantly obvious sign that God was working in my life. And, since there didn’t seem to be any, I operated from the assumption that I was in control of my life. I would like to take a moment and dissuade you of the notion that you’re in complete control of your life. That was a huge mistake that I made. I believe in personal responsibility and that we do have a choice, however, God is still working whether or not you see Him. You will see exactly what you want to see. It is like a muscle. In order to see God at work, you have to exercise it to make it stronger before you’ll really start to discover God’s work. In the narrative of Joseph, he recognized that God was at work and responsible for particular things. Specifically, the dreams of the cup bearer, baker, and the Pharaoh. Each instance that the three aforementioned persons asked Joseph if he could interpret the dreams, Joseph replied that the interpretation comes from God, NOT himself. I would like to draw four principles from Genesis 41. I would recommend that you read the whole chapter, or even better the whole narrative starting in Genesis 37. However, to give a brief overview, Pharaoh has two dreams. One is of seven plump and fat cows eating in the Nile. Then, seven starved cattle come up out of the Nile and eat the seven plump and fat cows. The second dream is of seven full ears of corn. Then, seven lean ears of corn grow up and consume the seven ears of full corn. Pharaoh awakes from his dream distressed and gathers all the magicians of the land to interpret his dream, but there is no one who can. The cup bearer remembers that Joseph once interpreted his dream while he was in prison two years before. Joseph is called before Pharaoh and asked if he can interpret the two dreams. Joseph replies that it is not in himself, but God will. After Joseph is told the two dreams he gives the interpretation and then a suggested solution to what God was about to bring on the earth. As a result, Joseph is promoted to second in command of all Egypt. Now, the four principles I saw from this part of the narrative:

1. There will be a need – Pharaoh had a dream and needed an interpretation. In the world, there will be some sort of need or want that you can help people fulfill. It might be spiritual, mental, or physical. Ask God to help you see how or what that particular need is and how to go about meeting that need.
2. God already has or will equip you to fulfill that need – Joseph had already interpreted dreams before Pharaoh’s dreams and he had also been a manager of Potiphar’s house and the prison. Therefore, when the need for an interpretation and an overseer of the land to prepare for the coming famine arose, Joseph had already been specifically equipped with the necessary experience and knowledge to fulfill that need. This is one reason I want you to look at how setbacks, hardships and failures are part of His journey for your success. If Joseph had decided to be angry at God for selling him into slavery, he never would have learned to be a manager of Potiphar’s house. If Joseph had allowed resentment towards God and others to fester within himself for being locked up in prison, he never would have had the opportunity to interpret the dreams of the cup bearer and baker. Look at your present circumstances and ask how you can bring glory to God and enrich other people’s lives in your PRESENT situation, not your “ideal” or “if only” situation. You will never find your “ideal or “if only” circumstance until you’re responsible in the little things of where you are NOW in life.
3. God will gain the glory and recognition – Joseph openly acknowledged before Pharaoh that it was not him that gave the interpretation, but God. Similarly, when you start to fulfill your purpose and the needs of others, God will be the ultimate benefactor of the fruit produced. It will turn people back to God.
4. You will be God’s instrument to bless the people of earth – Joseph was appointed second in command of all Egypt and began preparing the land for seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. It might not be right now, but where you’re at now is part of your journey in God’s story. He is preparing you to be his instrument for even greater responsibilities. Be faithful and fruitful with your present responsibilities and circumstances.

Have you ever had a day that you didn’t feel like being at work? You wished that you could find your dream job and understand what your purpose is in life?

I have had that lately. I work in an industry that pays well, and though I can do the work and seem to like it, it doesn’t feel like it is the work I was meant to do. I want to do work that makes me feel alive. I want to wake up with passion in my heart and bones to go and do that which I was made for.

Trouble is, my purpose isn’t just something that I can know or understand in a day or two. It is a process. One major hindrance, I believe, that holds people from discovering their true potential and purpose is that they quit when things get tough.

In our present culture in the United States, it is very common for someone to quit their job within 5 years, more and more commonly, within 2 years. However, every time we quit and run from people who are difficult to work with, or a job that involves laborious tasks, we lose all the benefits that come from stretching, learning, and growing due to difficulties.

Believe me, I want you to find your dream job and your purpose. I want you to feel passionate when you wake up and to live each moment to its fullest. However, use your situation and circumstances now to grow and learn from them. It will prepare you for the time to come when you have even greater responsibilities in your dream job or your purpose.

So, while your in the situation you might not want to be in, don’t quit or run away from your problems. Instead, be faithful. I want to share with you three principles I learned from Joseph while he was in prison. You can read the story in Genesis chapter 39 and 40.

1. Be faithful even in the little things– Joseph, even though he had been demoted from overseeing all that was in Potiphar’s house, didn’t stop being a good manager of what he was put in charge of. So much so, that even the prison guard didn’t micromanage Joseph. The guard had complete trust in Joseph.
2. Use your best gifting or strength– Joseph used his strength and skill of being a manager to the best of his ability. Joseph also helped Pharaoh’s cup bearer and baker by giving them the interpretations of their dreams.
3. Recognize that your skill, gift or strength’s source comes from God –Joseph recognized that all interpretations of dreams belonged to God (Genesis 40:8). Remember that you’re living in God’s story, not your own. Therefore, He wants you to use the skills and abilities He’s placed in you to help other people so that He might be given all the glory. Imagine that, you get to (it’s a privilege!) use the skill, gifting or strength to honor God! You’re not working for someone or yourself, you’re working for God.

Question: What part of your life is very hard to apply diligence? Do you know what your skill, gifting or strengths are?

I want you to understand that who you are today is because of the choices you’ve made in response to the events of your past. Too often, a bad experience from your past can skew the truth of your present, which in turn, will skew your view of present reality and future decisions. It is important, therefore, to examine your beliefs and paradigms of today and how your past has shaped them. If you do not evaluate your past experiences and how they are influencing your present, then you could be missing amazing opportunities for your future.

Christians talk about Jesus’ blood covering their past sins, but I don’t know if the Christian himself has allowed his sin to be covered by Jesus’ blood in his own mind. Too often, I see Christians held captive by the sins of their past instead of living in the freedom that Christ offers. When I say, “Held captive,” what I mean is that they’re held captive mentally, emotionally and spiritually. We allow our failures and our hurts to box and cage ourselves into our own prison, when God has already opened the door. All that we have to do is step through it into His grace. How prideful and arrogant are we to live our lives as if God’s grace isn’t good enough for us? That somehow, we have to be good enough for Jesus Christ.

I want you to think back over the events of your past. Find that one event that really makes you cringe and wish that you never went through that experience. How do you feel about it now? Have you learned anything new? Has it kept you from making better decisions, or allowed you to make wiser decisions?

I want to consider the narrative of Joseph in Genesis 39. It does not appear to me that Joseph allowed his past experiences to dictate his attitude towards his life and influence his actions. I would venture to say this because even in prison, “…The Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed” (Genesis 39:21-23).

After reflecting on this, I feel so convicted because too often when my circumstances change for the worse my attitude and actions usually follow suite. I then make an interpretation of what my experience was and allow that experience to influence my perception and decision for future situations of similarity. However, Joseph didn’t allow being put in prison falsely to influence his commitment to helping people and working in the skill that God had given him. How would you have responded if someone sued you falsely and put you in prison? How would you have responded, or would you have reacted to your circumstance?

Now, I want you to remember the event I asked you to find in your past that made you cringe. What have you learned now that we’ve examined Joseph’s story in Genesis as you think about your past? How will you commit to changing your attitude and actions in the future? How have past experiences and relationships hindered you from living a fulfilled, grace covered, and free life in Christ?

The point is that I don’t want you to live like a victim to your present circumstances, because you’re not. You have a choice to react or respond to your circumstances. Reacting to your circumstances is based in the prideful desire to control people or circumstances. Whereas if you respond, you’re taking responsibility to do what you can to improve the situation.

I’ll give you a for instance of the two sides of the coin in how to react or respond. What if instead of complaining to your peers at work, you accepted the project that you didn’t want to take on and made it the best that you possibly could? What if instead of dreading the person no one else wants to work with, you looked forward to influencing them in a positive way? What if you took the responsibility and decided to change your attitude, instead of trying to change your circumstances? How can you expect to be given greater responsibilities in life if you can’t even handle life with the little things that overwhelm and cause your moods and actions to sway? If you’re only giving your employer 50% of your productivity now, how will you give 100% in a higher position in the company or at a different company? What makes you think that if you went to a different company, people would treat you better there?

If you can’t be faithful in the little things, how will you be faithful with greater things? Greater things will only magnify what is already inside of you.

You see, you’re missing the opportunity right NOW. Remember your past experience, did you run from your problem in the past, learn to avoid similar situations, or did you grow from it? Stop trying to run from your problems. Joseph didn’t run from his problem and he didn’t allow his circumstance of being in prison to determine his commitment to give his best work and attitude. The interesting thing is that this prepared him for the ultimate responsibility of his life, saving the land of Egypt and his family from the coming famine. God can use your present circumstance to prepare you for the greater things that He has for you.

Understand that everything you go through can be used by God to prepare you for greater things if only you respond correctly and operate within God’s grace. Look at your life from God’s perspective, not yours.

Actions items:

1. Make a list of the experiences you’ve had in life, that once you went through it, you were changed and life was not the same. These are the big turning points in life in which once you went through it, you could not go back.
2. Write whether the initial experience was negative or positive
3. Write whether the initial experience has changed since time has past, do you have a negative or positive outlook on it now?
4. On all of your negative and positive events, how has God’s hand been at work, trying to bring you to experience His love and discover what He has for you? Is there a particular theme God has woven into your life story thus far?

 

“The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands” (Genesis 39:2-3, ESV).

To some degree, people want some form of success. It might be in an area of life, in their career, business, or some other thing. But I think for most, though, success seems to be an ever elusive pursuit.

What is success? I think that success is accomplishing something that is significant to the achiever. Now, some people define success as greatness, or gaining some form of fame or notoriety. However, the way I think of success is the ability to achieve that which you desire. The key, though, is that you cannot be successful by simply existing, you have to actually do something.

I’ll share a story with you from my own experience. I want to be successful, meaning that I want to live a life that is purpose driven and helps other people. I want to do something significant with the life God has given me. So, I tried many things, all of them were pursuits of my own doing, self-generated, and human based. Every time I started one thing, I always seemed to hit a wall. I couldn’t seem to find the success I wanted in my pursuits. During this time, I didn’t seek God in any of the endeavors I was pursuing. I kept hitting wall after wall. I think I was scared to actually surrender and seek God. Stupid me! The frustration I experienced jumping from project to project was extremely aggravating. I would actually get angry. Finally, my anger bubbled over into surrender because I couldn’t do anything any more. I gave up because there wasn’t anything else to do. Everything I tried wasn’t working. So, I stopped the projects I was thinking about and working on and decided to simply read scripture and figure out what God says about success. As I began to listen to scripture, my pride began to crumble down. More and more I started to understand creation, people, relationships, and the work of God through the ages, from His perspective. As I did, the wall that was holding me back (my pride) was brought down and replaced with humility in understanding that God was the author of success. He is the author of me. I fit in His story, not the other way around. I started experiencing true peace and clarity of what God desired for me. I tried so hard to make my own story, instead of discovering God’s story.

The first thing to understand about success is that it comes from God. Jesus even says that in John 15. “I am the True vine, and My Father is the Vine dresser…Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me” (John 15:1, 4, ESV). There are plenty more scriptures that support this, and maybe I’ll share them in future posts.

So, now it’s time for action. Here are some action steps and a few questions in gaining the success that only comes from God.

Begin by surrendering your life to God! He created YOU, and He knows you better than you know yourself. Believe me, He has a better plan for you than you could make for yourself. I had to learn this the hard way. Don’t make the same mistake that I made. Don’t let your pride keep you from experiencing the elation, freedom and peace that can only be found in Him.

Spend time reading scripture and praying. God is a person and, therefore, your relationship is like any other relationship. If you want to know what amazing things God has for you, you have to get to know and understand God. Commit to 15-30 minutes a day of reading scripture, praying, and thanking God for specific blessings. This gets the focus off of you and on to Him where it should be. Do this for 30 days, preferably in the morning when your mind is fresh and clear. You must form a new habit for the rest of your life. If you’re feeling zealous, here’s what I do. I have an hour and a half commute to work. I decided to spend the entire time listening to scripture, praying, and then worshiping with some awesome tunes.

Goal setting. Here’s a few questions I ask when I set big goals.
How will this glorify God?
Will this help me or others know God more intimately?
Will I grow in godliness?
Will this serve an eternal purpose?

Ponder these things and seek to be a part of God’s story. We are his creation, so how does He want you to help others?

Well, I want to hear from you. What would success look like for you? What do you want to achieve? Did this help you?