Tag Archives: Joseph

Guard Your Heart

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Genesis 39:7-20

Warren Wiersbe entitled this portion of his study on Genesis, Be Authentic, “Overcoming Great Temptation.”Joseph did that. When Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him day after day, Joseph steadfastly refused her. He showed a great deal of self-control.

Wiersbe quotes Proverbs 25:28: “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.” I believe Joseph had built walls around his spirit by considering integrity, purity, obedience, and honoring God way before he ever even met Potiphar’s wife.

Proverbs 4:23 tell us “above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” I think Joseph was able to overcome great temptation because he was able to overcome gentle temptation first.

It goes back to taking sin seriously. Scripture tells us to flee temptation before it becomes a sin. I doesn’t say just flee the big ones.

My sister tells about a time she and her young son (7 or 8 years old at the time) were standing in line at the grocery. Right at his eye level, there was a magazine cover of a half-naked woman. Before she could say something to her son, she saw him look at the picture, then intentionally turn away. Even at his young age, he was building a wall around his spirit. He was guarding his heart.

You will be tempted in some way today. Are your walls up? Are you guarding your heart?

Hold Your Horses

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Genesis 39:1-6

If you wonder why God would allow Joseph to go through the hardships he faced, wonder no more. Warren Wiersbe in his study, Be Authentic suggests that if Joseph had been allowed to remain at home, the favored and pampered son, hated by his brothers he would not have been fit to fulfill the responsibilities of leading a nation. Joseph had to learn humility, service, hard work, and faith before God could use him in such a significant way.

Think about it. Even Jesus, after being baptized, took forty days in the wilderness before jumping into ministry. Paul didn’t get up from the dirty road to Damascus and start preaching. In fact, it seems he spent time in Arabia being taught by Jesus Himself (Galatians 1), then three years being an apprentice preaching in Damascus before he went to Jerusalem.

Remember John Mark? As a young man he failed completely in ministry alongside Paul and Barnabas. Years later, Mark became an important help to Paul. But he had to mature first.

I think churches make a mistake when they take a new believer and put him or her in positions of authority before they’ve had time to mature in their new-found faith. Sure, they are on fire for the Lord and it’s tempting to think that’s just what the Church needs. But the Church does NOT need ministry based on feelings. In fact, I would suggest that harms the Church more than it helps.

When Jesus gave us His last command, He told us to go and make disciples. He didn’t tell us to go and make converts. Making disciples takes time and effort. But without it a new believer stays an infant.

You don’t put a newborn baby behind the wheel of a car. Why? The same applies to putting a new believer in front of a classroom, or on the elder board, or making him pastor of your church. A baby doesn’t have what it takes to drive the car, and a new Christian doesn’t have what it takes to drive the ministry.

It took years of hardship, forced labor, tough lessons and a growing faith for Joseph to be ready to be used by God. Let’s, as mature Christians, have discernment enough to do the same for the new believer.

They may be excited about their salvation, all in, totally committed to Jesus. But sometimes you gotta say: Hold your horses! There are no shortcuts to maturity. The thing about growing in faith and knowledge of our Lord is that it doesn’t put out the flame, it feeds it. If you are afraid this excited young Christian will lose that excitement if you take time to nurture him, you either are not trusting God, or you don’t really trust the truth of their salvation.

If you are a new Christian, welcome to the family. Let me encourage you to find a mature Christian to come along side you, to hold you accountable, to teach you, mentor you, challenge and encourage you as you learn what being a Christian is all about.

If you are a seasoned Christian, be that person to a new believer. Seek them out. Spend time praying with and for them. Read the Bible with them. Ask and answer questions. Watch them grow.

Then watch them be used by God at just the right time. One day that “Hold your horses” will be “Giddy-up!”

Doing the Unthinkable

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Genesis 37

We can read about Joseph’s brothers and see where their jealousy and hatred led. Their actions against Joseph have no rational explanation and cannot be justified. Joseph was innocent. There is no excuse for what his brothers did to him.

In fact, most of us can’t imagine the heartless actions of the brothers, from plotting to kill him, throwing him into a pit then sitting down to enjoy a meal together as if nothing had happened, to selling Joseph into slavery. It’s unthinkable that someone could treat a brother with such contempt.

But Warren Wiersbe in his book entitled Be Authentic (David C Cook publisher; Second Edition 2020; p98) warns us that all of us are potentially capable of doing what the brothers did. He cites Jeremiah 17:9 that says we have hearts that are deceitful and desperately wicked. We all do.

Newton’s first law of inertia says once an object is set in motion it will continue moving until acted upon by an external force. I think that applies to jealousy, or any sinful thought and feeling.

Once it is put into motion it will continue moving. But like a snowball rolling down a hill, it won’t just keep moving, though; it will grow, it will get faster and move with more power until is gets out of control…

Until!

At any point an outside force can step in front of it and bring it to a complete stop, destroy it, get rid of it.

I think the lesson here is never put that thought in motion in the first place. Recognize it as sin. Repent of it. Allow Jesus to step in front of it and destroy it while it’s still the size of a snowflake. If you don’t, you could be dealing with an avalanche somewhere down the road.

Never underestimate those sinful thoughts of jealousy, hatred, pride, lust, revenge, etc. Put any of those in motion and you will find yourself doing the unthinkable – just like Joseph’s brothers.

Don’t tell yourself that can’t happen to you. That thought might be pride speaking, and that’s something you don’t want to put in motion.

A Grieving Father

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My mom died in 1996, but I can still remember how hard it was to watch my father’s grief. He was lost without her. I remember making the 60 mile trip every weekend to be with him, just to sit with him, take a ride in the car with him, watch an old movie with him, just to do what I could to help ease the burden of his grief. It’s not that I wasn’t grieving. I was. But somehow his grief looked different than mine.

When my sister lost her son in an automobile accident, watching her grief was, and is hard. There is a sadness in her smile, a tear in her laughter. And as someone who loves her, her grief breaks my heart. Watching someone you love go through tremendous grief has to effect you, too, doesn’t it?

So when I was reading in Genesis 37 this morning about Jacob’s grief over his son Joseph’s supposed death, I thought of Dad and Peggy. I could almost picture the look on Jacob’s face in the days and weeks following the horrible news because I could picture their look.

Then I found myself getting a little angry at Joseph’s brothers. How could those ten men watch their father’s grief over losing Joseph, when any one of them could have stepped up and told the truth? They had it within their power to relieve Jacob’s grief. And they did nothing. Jacob would have paid any price to buy Joseph’s freedom from slavery. Couldn’t just one of the ten of them care enough for their father to do what could be done to bring their brother back?

Maybe the brothers really did hate Joseph. But didn’t they love their dad?

Then it hit me. My Heavenly Father is grieving over his own lost children. His heart is broken when any of his children deny him, or ignore him. He agonizes over those who have yet to hear of Jesus. Every sin committed against my Heavenly Father is like a knife in the heart.

Couldn’t just one of us who are a part of his household, his family, care enough about our Father to do what can be done to relieve our Father’s grief? God will pay anything… he’s paid with his life… to buy his children out of slavery to sin.

Witnessing to a lost friend isn’t just about that friend. It’s also about our grieving Heavenly Father’s agony over our lost friend. I have to ask myself if I’m ok, knowing my Father grieves, and doing nothing about it. Can I love my Father and still be ok if he is grieving?

We Christians are in the same place Joseph’s brothers were in. We know the truth. Maybe it’s time we stepped up and did something about it.

Dear Heavenly Father, picturing you grieving over unsaved people breaks my heart. I love you. I want to picture you with a smile on your face, not tears streaming down your cheeks. What can I do to bring that smile back? Do you want me to talk to my neighbor today? Do you want me to call that person you’ve laid on my heart? Do you want me to introduce you to the waitress at the restaurant, my hair dresser, my child’s teacher? May I never be ok with the fact that you are grieving. May you find me a faithful daughter, sharing your Truth, and bringing a smile to your face. May I never be satisfied with just saying, I love you. Help me to show you how much I love you today by bringing one of your lost children home.