There’s one thing that always intrigues me when I read the story of Joseph.
Here’s a man, bound and displayed completely naked in a bustling market under the sweltering sun, inspected like livestock and sold to the highest bidder into a lifetime of slavery yet the Bible in Genesis 39:2 calls him a successful man.
Now you would think it would’ve made more sense if the Holy Spirit had waited until he was Prime Minister to call him a successful man yet right there with nothing to his name, not even a loincloth to cover his modesty, God calls him a successful man.
Now to the natural, there’s no way such a man can be remotely considered successful but according to the Bible, it was not really who he was or what he had or how well he was doing in life that warranted the title but Who he had in his corner.
It is God who made all the difference.
It was not the changing circumstances that defined him but his unchanging God.
The presence of God in his life was the only qualification he needed to be regarded as a successful man and this speaks alot about the God of the Bible.
You see the God of the Bible is not just your rewarder, He is your very great reward. (see Genesis 15:1)
He does not just apportion you your inheritance in Christ, He is your portion and your inheritance. (see Numbers 18:20)
The truth is, in God, all things exist, consist and co-exist.
The late Dr. Myles Monroe once said, “If you ran into God in the highway of nothing, by the corner of nowhere and shook His hand you would be shaking hands with Everything.”
This is one of the reasons I believe Jesus could confidently say in essence,"seek Him first". (see Matthew 6:33)
Jesus understood that by seeking God, you would inevitably find everything else you ever wanted or needed because everything else is in Him.
It's the same revelation the psalmist had in Psalm 16:5 when he says,"You, LORD, are all I have, and you give me all I need" and again in Psalm 73:28 when he says,"you’re all I want in heaven! You’re all I want on earth!"
In truth, if God is all you have, you have all you need which means He ought to be your only pursuit.
As you pursue God, everything else is somewhat effortlessly drawn to you.
In God's scheme of things, you find what you want or need when you don't actively pursue it but are just focused on Him.
For instance, you will never find Abraham or Joseph or David actively pursuing anything they wanted but everything was somewhat always attracted to them as they walked with God.
The world chases after all these things but Jesus says chase after God and all these things will chase after you.
As a child of God, the danger of actively pursuing whatever you want or need like the world does is it's always at the expense of something else..whether that's your health, your family, your relationships, your peace, your sanity, your integrity, your life and most importantly, your relationship with God.
You actually end up losing more than you gain.
The world's way of getting stuff always comes at a cost.
The devil is very good at razzmatazz and he'll never show you all the doom and gloom.
God's gifts however are without any downsides.
Without any pain or sorrow.
The Bible says in Proverbs 10:22:
"The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it."
The truth is, unlike the devil, there are no hidden agendas with God.
God wants you to have all the nice things you desire that are in line with His will for your life but He just doesn't want these things to have you.
Many people today, for example, want to be rich which Paul actually warns against.
In 1 Timothy 6:9 he says:
“But people who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.”
Now Paul is not saying that God is against riches or He wants you to stay poor, He just doesn't want you to fall into the temptations that come with the desire to be rich.
If you let this desire permeate your entire being, you will get to a point where you will do almost anything to get rich and down the pit of destruction you go.
This is what Paul is warning against.
If you read of all the wealthy godly men in the Bible, none of them chased after wealth and riches.
None of them lived by the 'get rich or die trying...the end justify the means' mantra that's very prevalent in our generation today.
Wealth was added to them as a plus as they delighted themselves in the Lord.
Solomon, the richest man who ever walked (and will ever walk) the face of this earth, is estimated to have been worth a whooping $2.2 trillion dollars adjusted for inflation today.
He was said to receive $40 billion in gold every year as gifts. Whew!
Dude was so rich that during his reign, the Bible says gold and silver were as common as stones. (see 2 Chronicles 1:15)
This guy would make today’s billionaires look like paupers!
But what's interesting is riches was not something he pursued or even asked for.
Infact, God says it's because he did not ask for riches that He gave him riches. (see 1 Kings 3:11-13)
All these godly rich men in the Bible became rich accidentally seeking God than most of us ever will on purpose seeking riches.
The truth is, as a child of God you're not meant to pursue these additions like you'll take them with you when you die.
Shrouds have no pockets.
So whatever addition(s) you desire, whether it's a job, a spouse, a child, a car, a thriving business or ministry or marriage, good health, finances, you name it.. just focus on God and let Him add them to you at His appointed time and at zero cost to you.
"If He did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also FREELY give us all things?", Paul asks in Romans 8:32.
And don't let the devil discourage you.
It may look like those in the world are getting ahead and doing way better than you are but at what expense?
Behind those fake smiles and 'perfect' looking people lies all sorts of ills...from broken homes and marriages to unruly children to stress and stress related diseases to anxiety to sleepless nights to substance abuse and depression, not to mention the greatest drawback of them all, the fact that they do not have a relationship with God.
The devil will never show you all these downsides and what truly happens when the curtains fall on their facade and they withdraw back to their expensive cacoons every evening where they're molly whopped by reality.
He will just show you the razzle dazzle, the glitz and glamour, the big houses, the big cars, the private jets, the 'Silicon Valley' jobs, the expensive trips, the turn-ups and as believers, we are hoodwinked into thinking that these people of the world have it going for them better than we do, but looks can be deceiving.
The sad reality is the world is only holding on to a delusion and this will dawn on them one day and sadly it will be too late for them. (see Psalm 73)
The truth is, as a believer, you didn't get the shorthand of the stick beloved, you got the entire stick!
You got God and He is more than enough!
He is all-inclusive and all you have to do is seek Him (and nothing else) and in Him, you will find everything else.
My challenge to you is to pursue God and Him alone.
Trust me when I say, God can do more for you in a second than you can do for yourself your entire life.
It took God just a few minutes in the presence of Pharaoh to take Joseph from prisoner to Prime Minister.
Never forget what He has done in the past and what He is capable of doing.
Rehearse His wins as highlighted in His Word and you will feel encouraged to wait on Him.
He can do more for you than you or this world can do for you.
Things will come to you more easily and more accidentally when you pursue God than they ever will when you intentionally chase them down.
So do not pursue the thing, pursue the God of the thing and in the God of the thing you will find the thing.
This is the way of God.
Now by this I don't mean seek God for what you can get from Him but rather seek God for God and all these other things shall be added to you. (see Matthew 6:33)
God is not a means to an end, He is the end itself!
Never forget that.
So seek His face and not His hand such that if you were never to receive anything from Him, you'd be okay.
That's what contentment is about.
Getting to a place where God alone is enough!
But the truth is, God is not Someone you can seek and not get something in return.
No one seeks the Lord in vain. (see Isaiah 45:19)
He honors those who honor Him.
Just don’t let the honor be the reason why you're seeking God.
Your motives are more important to God than your actions.
So seek Him for Him period.
God bless you.
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