A tale of faithfulness

All the world came to Joseph. (Genesis 41:57)

If anyone had reason to break ties with his family and his God, Joseph did. Sold into slavery by his own brothers, Joseph found himself in a foreign country. Yet look at his faithfulness! In each new position—slave, prison inmate, then administrator—Joseph looked to God for wisdom and for strength to serve. He resisted temptations that cropped up at every turn. In the end, Joseph proved himself to his brothers by lavishing mercy on them. It’s a pretty safe guess that God delighted in Joseph’s faithfulness!

But at its heart, the story of Joseph is really a story of God’s faithfulness. After all, it was God who blessed all that Joseph did and gave him the remarkable spiritual insights that caught Pharaoh’s eye. In his own timing, God raised Joseph to the world’s stage, as we see in today’s first reading. And you could say that God was even faithful to his miscreant brothers who sold him into slavery. He saved them from famine and brought them into fertile Goshen.

So what does this mean for you today? Well, for one, it means that God honors your faithfulness too. He sees your devotion in praying and serving and loving. He hears your prayers. He remembers you. He considers your sacrifices, even the small ones that you think go unnoticed. Even when you’re not faithful to him, because we all make mistakes, he remains true to you.

It also means that today, he is working behind the scenes. He’s using your faithfulness to do more than you can probably imagine. When you feel imprisoned by guilt, fear, or resentment, he is at work, forging a way out for you. When you feel unable to forgive someone who has wronged you, he is at work, finding ways to help you soften your heart. Just as he worked through Joseph’s challenging situations, even when it seemed hopeless, your faithful Father is working in you. So hang in there! Try your best to be faithful, and trust that he will raise you up in his own time and in his own way. Always remember that God loves writing long tales of faithfulness.

“Lord, your faithfulness stretches to the heavens! Thank you that your gaze of love is on me today.”

from wau.org

Malleable hearts

Anoint him, for this is the one. (1 Samuel 16:12)

Even from the earliest days, there was a strict hierarchy in every Jewish family. The father was the head of the household, and his eldest son was the heir apparent. All the other sons had lesser places in the home and stood to inherit less than their older brother. 

But Scripture tells us about some people who operated outside of this hierarchy and became powerful servants of God in their own right. For example, Deborah was a woman living in a man’s world (Judges 4–5). Jacob outshone his older brother, Esau (Genesis 27). And Gideon, the “most insignificant” in his father’s house, rose up to become a great warrior and liberator of his people (Judges 6–7). David, the youngest of Jesse’s sons, fits right in that pattern.

By traditional standards, these limitations should have kept these people from rising up to positions of leadership in Israel. But God uses a different method of selection. He places an emphasis on how a person thinks and acts, not on that person’s place in the family or society. As he told Samuel, he looks at the heart, not the appearance.

Even today, God is looking for people with pure hearts, people who will be faithful and obedient. He is looking for people who are willing to be formed by him. King Saul, David’s predecessor, had turned away from God, but in David, God found a man with a soft heart and a willing spirit.

God isn’t looking for the smartest, the wealthiest, the most beautiful, or the flashiest person. He is looking for people who are committed to him and who strive to model their lives after his teachings.

We are God’s anointed ones. He has blessed us and filled us with his grace. May we rise up today and tell the Lord that we want to serve him and honor him with our lives.

“Lord, give me the desire to follow you and the strength to help build your Church.”

~taken from wau.org