Equipping young women professionals with young families to find fulfillment, contentment and joy as mothers and home makers without losing sight of who they are as women.

Volume 10, Issue 12: Thrive on Your Way

I wanted to finish the message I started to relay at the end of last year from my Deacon's end of year message that I posted just before the dawn of the new year. I found it too powerful to not go back to and share with my community. She used the story of Joseph to encourage us to not let our circumstances keep us from the future God has prepared for us.

There are a couple of lessons we can't help but pick from Joseph's story. I will relay some of the ones my Deacon laid out for us at my church's end of year service. It was from prison that Joseph went to Pharaoh's court. He had every right to be angry and to give up on life. He had every reason to be dysfunctional. But Joseph maintained his integrity and resisted the urge to hold a grudge against his brothers for selling him into slavery.

Everyone has something to offer to the world, a God-given gift, ability or talent. The question is whether or not you are using your gift. Joseph's special gift was the ability to interpret dreams. It is this gift that helped Joseph step into his greatness. Joseph used his special gift in prison and that became his ticket to Pharaoh's court. Don't neglect your gift. Don't think something else will get you to the "palace". Stewarding your talent is your ticket to the "palace".

The favour of God on your life doesn't cease to function in your "dungeon". God was with Joseph wherever he went, and for that reason, he had favour. You have to acknowledge that God is still God in your difficult situation, and that He is with with you right in the midst of the chaos. We regard Potiphar's wife's actions against Joseph as unfair but have you ever thought that what she did was the best thing that happened to Joseph? Because it was in prison that Joseph's breakthrough came. He may have never had to interpret any dreams in Potiphar's house, and if he did, there may have been no connections to get to Pharaoh's hearing.

Don't be consumed by where you are but rather notice the goodness of God that doesn't respect your address. Favour will follow you regardless of your "prison". God's favour on your life will ensure you are favoured by your masters even in the midst of chaos. Joseph found favour with the Lord, and was therefore favored by his masters - from Potiphar, to the prison warden and to Pharaoh. Put not your focus on your "dungeon" circumstances but in stewarding your talent and honouring God. You can still bear fruit in prison.

You can still bear fruit in that work environment that drives you crazy. Don't fight the witch hunters, don't lose sleep over them. Leave it to God. Rejoice in your suffering because suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. Hope cannot put us to shame. Thank God for where he has brought you from and where he is taking you. Trust God to make all things beautiful in His time.

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi