Wise like Joseph?

Repenting for sin can be pretty humbling eh? Even when the ‘sin’ in question isn’t one of the gross sins, that no one would want to mention it’s common for me to feel at least a tinge of embarrassment in confession. But 99% of the time, I feel closer to God, and the weight of sin lifted from my shoulders after repenting to another brother/sister. Why am I telling you all of this? Well, today I had such an experience.
“Ooooo, a juicy sin!” you’re thinking, right? Probably not that juicy but, here’s what happened: Yesterday, I came into my boss’s office just as he’s considering a host of factors to determine the minimum number of cameramen needed at various locations at various time. Some consultants needed the answer and they had a figure in mind, but as it was a bit complex, they wanted back-up verification. And, I walked in just at the right time.
Now, I like this kind of thing, but I was really struggling trying to wrap my mind around all these figures there with them, so I said I would take it to my desk and figure it out. As, I sat down I remembered Joseph in prison, and how he prayed to God for an interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream, and so I said a quick prayer. “Lord, you are able to give the answer to this dream. I don’t want an answer just to look good, but I do want to solve this problem. If you give me an answer to this issue Lord, I will tell them (my boss and the consultants) that it was you who gave the answer.”
Well, sure enough, God gave the answer really quick. And, I went in there and told them, but I forgot to do what I said that I would and give God the glory. In fact, I felt pretty smart for seeing that it was much simpler than how we were seeing it before. But, this morning I read about wisdom in Proverbs 8. I found myself asking the Lord for wisdom about practical issues in my life, and I remembered this little prayer that I had prayed—I guess it was more of a vow really. And, I realized I had broken my word.
There were two issues here. One, I needed to fulfill my word. And, two, I need the Lord’s wisdom in so many areas of my life, and I want to be a person that He can give wisdom too. I believe that this means allowing the gifts He has given me to reflect his love and character instead of solely reflecting my talents and abilities.
All humans have gifts and abilities, but not all willingly give thanks and credit to God for these gifts that God has given them. He may still be glorified in their beauty but, I just imagine that on the last day, when Jesus is revealed to all of mankind, that those who had tried to keep the glory of their gifts and talents to themselves, rather than glorifying God, will find shame in the very things that they had taken pride in. And conversely, those who had glorified God with their gifts and talents, will be able to look at Jesus with their hearts overflowing with the joy of knowing that not one of their words, or attitudes of praise was wasted. Every utterance of God’s faithfulness, beauty and glory will be shown to be true, and not only will He be found fully worthy of all the glory given to Him, but He will be found worthy of so much more—infinite glory! That’s how good and perfect He is! And every soul shall know it.
All that to say, I shot off a quick email to those involved with the little math project, making it clear that I prayed, and God answered. Though it wasn’t an issue of life or death, and in fact was just a practical detail, God was still faithful. And I’m thankful that He is faithful with the small, practical details, because my life is full of them.
Blessings to you from India with Love,
John Clancy

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 15th, 2006 at 1:23 am and is filed under John's Reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.