The favor of God

"The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered,..." 
Genesis 39:2

Everything Joseph touched turned to gold.  Whatever he did was successful.  So Potiphar wants in on the secret.  He was seeing the blessings, so he made Joseph the man in charge.  Joseph pretty much handled everything except feeding Potiphar dinner.  The favor of God was in full force, and everyone around Joseph was reaping the benefits...until Potiphar's wife showed up.   

Joseph is caught in a no-win situation.  He does his part by literally running away from her, but to no avail.  Joseph is thrown into prison, in large part because of a piece of his robe that as ripped off as supposed evidence.  No more blessings, we might think.  No more favor, perhaps. 

But the story tells us something about the favor of God - 

it's not restricted by time or circumstance.

Joseph quickly becomes BMOC in the prison, impressing the warden to the point that he's put in charge of the other prisoners.  Pharaoh then decides that he likes tossing people in jail, so in come the cupbearer and bread maker. They too encounter the favor of God in Joseph, who interprets their dreams. If you know the story, it's possible that the bread maker wished he hadn't asked for the meaning.  

Joseph asks the cupbearer to mention him to Pharaoh when he gets out of the slammer, in hopes that Pharaoh will show kindness and release Joseph.  Good plan, except for the part where the cupbearer forgets...

"The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him."

Two full years pass.  Has God's favor left?  Are Joseph's best days behind him?  Should he just settle for his role as prison small group leader?

We don't know what Joseph did for those few years, but it had to be tough. We might mistakenly conclude that God's favor had left him during this time.  But there's another truth about the favor of God that we see in this story.  Joseph eventually gets out of prison, interprets Pharaoh's dreams, and is put in charge of all of Egypt.  Pharaoh's decision to place Joseph as second in command comes as a result of his realization that the favor of God is upon him.

“Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?”

There we have it.  
The favor of God comes to those who have the spirit of God.

So it is for those who love God.  No matter where you are, or what circumstance you find yourself in, the favor of God is upon you. We know this because of Jesus Christ, who secured for us eternal favor: life with God.

Where God Lives

In I Chronicles 17 God reminds us how much he wants to live in us. David wanted to build a house for the Ark of the Covenant but God sent a message telling David to leave the building up to Him. He would build his own house that would be perfectly beautiful - Jesus.

A few thoughts:

• We spend time trying to impress God with our religious duties, while God is impressed more by our faithfulness
• We sometimes run the risk of self-promotion when we have big ideas that are not God-ideas
• Through Jesus God lives in us
• Leaders who rely on God last longer
• God puts people in positions of power in order to teach them humility, not control (look at David's life)
• When leaders show humility , God gives them more influence
  

Journey Through Exodus

I'm reading through Exodus right now. Here are a few thoughts:

1) Moses is the man! Really, this dude is the greatest leader besides Jesus.
2) Sometimes people can ignore an obvious act of God
3) Sometimes leaders try to manipulate God in prayer (See Pharoah's story)
4) Ex. 4:31 - When Israelites became aware that God was concerned about them, they worshiped Him.
5) The Seven Plagues - God's desire was to continuously show His power - He still does today!
6) The one thing that prevented people from worshipping God was slavery - How relevant to today! We are slaves to money, status, sex, security, and a host of other things.