PRIORITY OF
FOCUSING ON RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
Eighth of
fourteen devotions in Gethsemane series
Genesis
37:5-11
Genesis
37:10: “When he [Joseph] told his father
as well as his brothers [his dream], his father rebuked him and said, ‘What is
this dream you had? Will your mother and
I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?”
Revelation
2:1-7
Revelation
2: 3-4: “You
have persevered and have endured hardships for My name, and have not grown
weary. Yet, I have this against you; You
have forgotten your first love.”
Joseph’s dad Jacob sounds angry: “Will
your mother and I actually bow down to you?”
Yet, as we saw in Wait on God
through Trials devotion lesson, this is exactly what they did! Perhaps Joseph should have considered beforehand
how sharing his dream would affect others.
Was he bragging?
No.
Joseph had a solid relationship with God. God was his anchor. That anchor held Joseph firm during life’s
disappointments. God made promises to
Joseph through dreams. (Did Jacob forget
his same relationship with God? Now
Joseph was hearing from God in the same way!)
Joseph was confident that God is faithful to fulfill his promise. Check out the lesson linked below for both
Jacob’s and Joseph’s dreams.
As an aside, let us all practice
saying something to ourselves silently before saying it aloud. Let’s be sensitive to how our words sound to
others.
Joseph’s family didn’t like Joseph’s
dreams. His jealous older brothers
couldn’t stand Joseph’s happy presence.
They thought they got rid of him for good in the last devotion. Growing up, people learn how to react to put-downs
and disappointment.
Take Home Nugget
Imagine God seeing all the
activity on Earth, identifying people with whom He has no relationship. What does He see when He looks at you?
After all, people are created in
God’s image specifically so that we could form a relationship with Him.
Jesus put it straight to the
Ephesians: they had forgotten Him! They
thought their relationship with God was great.
But their admirable good works were no substitute for a vibrant personal
relationship with Him. Service is a
result of devotion to God not a substitute for loving Him!
They must have been shocked when
Jesus said, “Yet, this is what I have against you; you
have forgotten your first love.”
Christians must never forget that
our first love is God! Ephesians loved
doing good works. They were so wrapped
up in doing that they forgot loving God.
After all, no work is fruitful unless He is in it.
Let us never forget who deserves our
love—above all!
Heavenly Father, forgive me
for finding satisfaction and delight in other things. You are my first love! Amen.
Adapted from “The Priority of a Relationship” and “Focusing on God.” Dr. Charles Stanley. March 6 and 12, 2015. In Touch magazine. Georgia, USA.
J.D. Griffith
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