Learn a lesson from Joseph’s journey of destiny
Fellow readers,
My sincere apology to all my readers for being absent on my page for a while. Thank God, I am back to share with you the word of God again. Pray along with me that the Holy spirit will reveal to you through this page to discover the will and purpose of God for your life. Every message will be followed by some prayers to instill the learned word of God into your heart. Having done that, gradually you will be edified, grounded, and rooted in the word of God, and the word will become active in your life.
The messages will come in a series on a particular topic for a period before going to a new topic. You need to focus on the lessons learned from the messages, because the word will help you to cope and bear with the situation you may find yourself. The scripture states that, “He sent His word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions” (Ps. 107:20). Therefore, read the word; get understanding of the word; appropriate the word to your life, and back it up with prayer that the word may be meaningful and fruitful in your life.
I am going to start the first series by encouraging you to learn some lessonsfrom Joseph’s journey of destiny as recorded in the Bible; beginning from his childhood through stages of life before his dream became a reality. A life that was full of ups and downs, hatred, disappointment, in bondage, implication, imprisonment etc. 13 years of freedom-not-in-sight. In all the troubles he experienced, God’s purpose for his life manifested at the end. His dream became a reality. He fulfilled his destiny. How do you cope, especially, when your life’s journey gets tough beyond your knowledge and understanding?
13 years of captivity ended one day. The night before that day, he was in prison; the following morning he found himself in the palace. Joseph gained his freedom for the next 80 years in prosperity.
My readers, where and what stage are you now in the journey of your destiny? How are you handling the challenges you are facing? My word of encouragement for you today is to keep your hope high with faith in the Lord. God will unfailingly manifest his purpose for your life, and you will fulfill your destiny.
The story of Joseph is a reminder to many of us, but since we are trying to learn from his story, there is the need to start by knowing his background and how he started the journey of his destiny. I know that many of us are familiar with this story, however, I want you to know that the word of God is new every day no matter how much you know.
Who is Joseph?
Joseph was one of Jacob’s twelve sons, bore to him by Rachel, one of Jacob’s wives (Gen. 30:22-24 NKJV). Joseph had ten half-brothers, one full-brother and one recorded sister. He was Rachel’s first son and Jacob’s eleventh son. This shows that Joseph was from a polygamist family.
The Bible made us to know that Jacob preferred and loved Joseph more than any of the other children. Jacob shows that preferential treatment by sewing a special coat of many colors for Joseph.
“Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also, he made him a tunic of many colors” (Gen 37:3 NKJV).
The preferential (favoritism) treatment given to Joseph by his father caused the first and root of the problems that Joseph had in the journey of his destiny. Joseph’s brothers became jealous of him, they envied him and hated him.
What is the lesson here? as much as it is possible, parents should not favor one child over the other/s within the family. Mind you, it is not because Joseph came from a family that practiced polygamy that caused the jealousy, it also happens in monogamist family setup. Parents should not under any circumstance be discriminatory to favor one child over the other. As in this case, Jacob loved Joseph because he was born to him in his old age and, Joseph was the son of his more loved wife, Rachel. Let us avoid favoritism (Jas. 2:1)
Parents are to always pray for their children and train them in the areas where they need to improve. Maybe because of academic performance, bad behavior, deformity etc. whatever it is, it is the duty of parents to train their children and love them equally and not to plant root of bitterness to hate one another.
Favoritism of a child over the others generates jealousy, envy, hatred and could end up in murder (Gen. 25:27-28; 27:1-10; Gen. 37:3-4, 18-20 NKJV). Also, it makes the favored unpopular and distanced from the rest. Do not because of any reason subject your children to be an object of ridicule, hatred, and oppression. Later, Joseph’s problem became more compounded because of his dream.
Prayers
- Pray for grace to appropriate the word of God in your life and your home, and that the word will heal you and your family and deliver you from any destruction.
- As parents, pray that God will give you the wisdom to treat your children equally.
- Pray that God will grant you the wisdom to manage your home in all godly wisdom
- Pray for grace to love your children without favoring one over another no matter the circumstance
- Pray for grace to recognize and power to help your child/children in any area that needs improvement in their life.
Next, we will see other problems emanating from Joseph’s favoritism over his brothers.