Humbled
/Genesis 37-39
In the early days of my ministry, without even being aware of it, I slowly began to gauge my self-worth on the opinions of the people around me. If I received praise for a sermon I preached or a youth event that I led, my self-esteem soared; if it seemed that I hadn’t gotten the affirmation I expected, I would become sullen and depressed. It took losing that ministry position to break pride’s grip on my heart. In the turmoil that followed the loss of that job, God shook me to the core of who I was. The Lord, in his mercy, revealed to me that I had loved the gift of my ministry more than the One who had given it to me and that I had substituted my identity as a Child of God for an identity based on what I did, stealing the glory that rightfully belonged to Jesus. I was humbled.
In Genesis 37, we are introduced to Joseph, a young man who seems to have it all—looks, his father’s favor, and more. He was also a snitch who loved telling his father when his brothers did something wrong. As you can imagine, this did not endear him to his siblings. His subsequent dreams about his brothers bowing down before him one day pushed them from dislike to seething anger, and they devised a plan: if you want to stop a dream from coming true, get rid of the dreamer. They eventually sell Joseph into slavery, he is taken away to Egypt and sold to an Egyptian officer in Pharaoh’s royal guard, and later finds himself falsely accused and in prison.
I wonder if Joseph ever thought about those dreams of greatness he’d once had as he lay in his prison cell at night. I wonder if he regretted the way he’d rubbed it in his brothers’ faces. Amazingly, even as he endured slavery and injustice, he never lost his faith in God; if anything, it likely grew stronger. For his part, the Lord continued to watch over Joseph and care for him even in his darkest times. God eventually brought Joseph’s dreams to fruition in ways he never could have suspected. However, when Joseph’s family came to bow down before him, he wasn’t the same arrogant boy he had been; he had become a humble servant of God. What a blessing! Not only did the Lord guide Joseph to be in the right place at the right time, but He also transformed him into a loving servant.
The truth is that if we stay humble and focused on God’s plan, He can (and will) use anyone, in any circumstance, to further His story. He used Joseph, He still uses me, and He can use you if you let Him.
In Christ’s Love,
Mike