Dear Lord, I want to be just like Joseph.
Only without all the hardship.
I don’t want to lose my freedom and be sold into slavery. And I definitely don’t want to be imprisoned. I don’t want a family that is jealous of me and treats me with murderous hate.
But in two very significant ways, I do want to be just like him.
First, that You were with Joseph, and second, that others saw that You were.
Genesis says “the Lord was with Joseph…and his master saw that the Lord was with him.” Your presence in Joseph’s life must be what enabled him to endure such hardships as enslavement and imprisonment.
And it was not only an internal sense that Joseph had personally, but it was evident to others around him that that Your blessing was on him, and that You were at work in and touching his life.
I already know that You are with me always, because I have the Holy Spirit living in me; given as a seal of my salvation. There has been a merging: You are in me and I am in You through Jesus Christ. But I also know that I can feel far from You when I am walking in disobedience or sin.
Help me see through whatever lie, deception or distraction might cause me to miss where a temptation would lead, so I can turn away from it before I am enticed into sin.
Show me the way of escape so I can avoid the sin trap. That way I can be fully in Your presence and will be able to bear up under whatever the circumstances are, like Joseph did.
And Lord, like Joseph, I desire that my life would be a stage upon which You act out Your purpose and Your will, so others will see You.
Jesus told a parable about seed that fell on different kinds of soil. I want to be the good soil that produces a crop yielding thirty or sixty or a hundred times what was sown. That way people will see what is produced and give You glory.
I may never have a prophetic dream, or give the interpretation of one, or save my entire family from famine like Joseph did.
But I ask that whatever You have planted in me, You would bring to fruition so others would see You, through me. I ask in Your name. Amen
Daily Bible Prayer 