Daily Devotion

Favor in the Midst of Persecution

 

"The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man; 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 prosper in his hands."  Genesis 39:2-3

 

How can you be blessed while you are going through?  To the mere human mind it seems to be an oxymoron, a paradox of some sort.  How can you reap blessings of immeasurable substance when enduring seemingly endless trials?  How can you keep God in the right place--your heart--when you are suffering?  Take a lesson from Joseph. 

 

Joseph was the favorite son of Israel (Jacob); so loved that his dad made him a special coat and preferred him above his other sons.  His jealous older brothers sold him into slavery (after deciding against killing him) where he was bought by an Egyptian Potiphar.  As the scripture above says, God was with Joseph even through all of this, showing him favor in the house of Potiphar.  God's blessings allowed Joseph to become prosperous even while being owned by someone else.  But as we have to learn, sometimes we must go through trials for our own testing, to test our faith.  His master put Joseph in charge of all of his affairs and the master prospered.  But being that Joseph was handsome (v. 6-7), the lustful wife of his master tried to seduce him into sleeping with her.  Because Joseph feared God, he passed his test, but not without the enemy seeking the opportunity to put him back.  Now we should all know that God can use anything thrown at us as a setback as a setup for our elevation.  Anytime someone does something that in normal circumstances would have caused you great strife, because of God's favor and blessings on our lives we can always expect a miracle to manifest for us.

 

By this point, we should all know that life is not a guaranteed cake walk.  There are mountaintops and valleys, periods of happiness and periods of sadness.  Yet the one profound truth is that God has the power to turn any losing battle into a victory.  Yes because the word says that we are already victorious because of Christ! "For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith." 1 John 5:4  There are no limitations in that verse.  We are blessed and can resolve to be victorious even in the face of adversity because we are born of God.

 

"But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

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God loves you...He blesses you with another day so make the most of it!


Marquita B. Priester