it's all about favor

Genesis 39

19 Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife's story about how Joseph had treated her.

20 So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king's prisoners were held,

        and there he remained.

21 But the LORD was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love.

       And the LORD made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden.

22 Before long, the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison.

23 The warden had no more worries, because Joseph took care of everything.

        The LORD was with him and caused everything he did to succeed.



A little back story...

Joseph, who had been sold into slavery by his brothers, was sold to Potifar, an official of the Pharoah in Egypt.

Potiphar trusted Joseph so much that he put him in charge of all his business & home.

Potiphar's wife had the hots for Joseph.

She kept pestering him to have sex with her.

One day she was really insistent - Joseph refused, ran away, but as he did, she pulled his shirt off.

She screamed & accused him of trying to rape her.

And Potiphar of course was furious & through Joseph in prison.



Now, here's the deal...

God gave Joseph favor with the jailer,to the point the Jailor turned the running of the prison over to Joseph.

Iow, even in prison, Joseph's life had impact bc God gave him favor.

Remember that back then, prison wasn't quite a Club Med experience. Prisons were primitive, violent places.


It doesn't matter where we are or what the situation might be, if God grants us favor, we will have impact.

I don't know what everyone's situation may be, or how limited, or limiting, it may be. But if God grants us favor in it, & we're willing to go where that favor may take us, Gd will grant us influence with people & fruit from our labors.

That might seem pretty impossible.

But if God can cause Joseph to have influence & impact in a nasty, awful place like a prison in Egypt, I would think He could cause us to have the same or greater influence in the places we live & work.

Think about this today...

     maybe if we took a fresh look at our situations & prayer for God to give us favor & influence in them, our impact would change.