It’s not in me, but God

Today's Verse

Genesis 41:38 (NKJV)

And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?”

Read Genesis 41

Thoughts

Talking about a person with total package solution, Joseph has it. All because, the Spirit of God was with him. Fresh from the dungeon of the prison, he finally got his break, and then catapulted into Prime Minister of Egypt. How cool was that? You may say, yet it happened to Joseph. But it was not an easy process. Because before that, Joseph was grinding into the valleys of trial at the dungeon. God was preparing him to be a “fool” proof minister of God’s work and of Egypt.

Early on at the prison cell, Joseph interpreted the dreams of the two servants of Pharaoh, the butler and the baker – both apparently offended the Pharaoh. The interpretation of their dreams by Joseph came into fruition during Pharaoh’s birthday, the butler was restored to office, and the baker was executed. Once the butler was restored to office, he forgot about Joseph. Only after two years past that he remembered Joseph, when Pharaoh was the one who got dreams that no one can interpret. Not even Pharaoh’s best fortune tellers, wise men, magicians, sorcerers, or astrologers can interpret Pharaoh’s dream. Only a person with close encounter with the Lord, that the Lord will reveal dreams to whom He pleases, such as Joseph.

In our text today, we see that God is the author of our dreams, and He is also the Revealer. “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” Joseph said in verse 16. “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do”, again he said in verse 25. Joseph was just an instrument of God to reveal His purpose. The good thing about Joseph was, he did not take credit of the things he had done, he fully understood that everything came from God and he was giving back all credit to God. And so, the Lord was delighted with Joseph that he was elevated as Prime Minister of Egypt.

Joseph did not just interpret Pharaoh’s dreams, and he could have lied about the reality that was about to take place – seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine, after all, he was at the enemy’s territory. Rather he relayed the message from God totally and completely, and even came with solutions on what to do. We see that Joseph had the personality of being plain-old, flat-out, truthful person. He does not withhold the truth, probably even if people cannot handle the truth. That made him in trouble with his step brothers, but now he is elevated by God because of his truthfulness.

When God uses you, do you take the credit? Or give it back to God with thanksgiving? It is not us, it is all about Jesus.

Prayer

Dear Lord Heavenly Father, it is not because of us that we can do wonderful and incredible feats, it is all because of You. You alone made things possible beyond our knowledge and abilities. We give You back the honor and glory. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.