from Nicole Reyes' sermon last night..
Joseph had a dream for his life, but in the beginning, he had himself as the center:
Genesis 37:5-8 says, "Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. He said to them, 'Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.' His brothers said to him, 'Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?' So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words."
Joseph's dream was accurate, but the dream was never about him. It was about how God could use him to rescue his brothers. And it took sort of a while for Joseph to come to a place where his "inner posture" would reflect humility and servant-hood, so he could have the outer posture God was calling him to.
Nicole talked about how we need to focus on serving others (like Joseph and Jesus did), so the purpose and dream in our hearts can come to fruition the way God intends.
But what I think is interesting is Joseph didn't say, "Okay now I'm going to start serving people because obviously my pride got me sold into slavery, and that wasn't good, so now I'm just going to serve serve serve until God sees my humility enough to let me have what I really want."
No, that was not his heart. In fact, he may not have even been wanting to serve. God was the one that allowed him to be sold into slavery and put into jail, where he was able to cultivate humility, which considering the circumstances, seemed to be one of the only options.
So yes we have a choice. We can choose to serve God and try to be less self-focused, but what I think we really need to do is pray and ask God to change our hearts, whatever it takes. Then we should look at every difficult circumstance as an ego-transforming opportunity and learn how we can work with God as He works to change us.
