Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Twice we read in that short account, "The Lord was with Joseph." Joseph began to see the hand of God in his prison experience. In what could have been the direst of positions, the dreariest of places, Joseph prospered.

If anybody knew about unfair treatment, about a false accusation, about being an innocent victim on the receiving end, it was Joseph. First, he received unfair treatment from his family. His brothers hated him, wanted to kill him, but sold him into slavery instead.

Imagine what must have been going through Joseph's mind at this point, shortly after he was incarcerated. He was not only innocent, he had resisted blatant temptation over and over again. (He'd never read Genesis 41. He didn't know what the final outcome would be.)

The appeal of sensual lust works like a magnet, drawing two "sudden and fierce" forces toward each other—inner desire and an outer bait. Let's face it, you can't escape the bait if you live in the real world.

This is a good time to call to mind several lessons we can learn from Jacob's family and Joseph's adversity. The first is obvious. No enemy is more subtle than passivity. When parents are passive, they may eventually discipline, but by then the delayed reaction is often carried out in anger.

Before we get better acquainted with Joseph, let's take a quick glance at some background information. It will help if you remember that his biography falls neatly into three distinct segments.

The world in which one person lives is too limited and restricted. When rubbing shoulders with another, we gain a panoramic view, which allows us to see the whole picture. "As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects man" (Prov. 27:19). That's so picturesque!

When Jesus tells us to "seek first the kingdom of God," the very word "seek" implies a strong-minded pursuit. J. B. Phillips paraphrases the idea with "set your heart on." The Amplified Bible says, "Aim at and strive after."

Monotony and mediocrity mesh like teeth in gears. One spawns the other, leaving us yawning, bored, and adrift. In referring to monotony, I do not have in mind a lack of activity as much as a lack of purpose. We can be busy yet bored, involved yet indifferent.

There is an important dimension to hanging tough that you dare not miss. It is the thing that keeps you going. I call it a dream. I don't mean those things we experience at night while we're asleep. No, by dream, I mean a God-given idea, plan, agenda, or goal that leads to God-honoring results.

I'm sure it comes as no surprise to most of us that we act out precisely what we take in. In other words, we become what we think. Long before that familiar line found its way into Psychology 101 and hyped-up sales meetings, the Bible included it in one of its ancient scrolls.

God is a God of freshness and change. But wait, before I leave that thought, let me make something very clear: God Himself isn't changing, nor is His Son. He "is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Heb. 13:8). Isn't that a great thought?

People of excellence are those who see through the clutching greed of our times—people who have declared their undivided allegiance to Christ's message, people who have humbled themselves to Christ's sovereign authority.

Vision—the one essential ingredient for being an original in a day of copies—gets lost, overwhelmed by the odds. Too bad! We start focusing on the trouble. Then we start comparing the odds. The result is predictable: We become intimidated and wind up defeated.

Are you open to change? People who make a difference can be stretched, pulled, pushed, and changed. You heard it from me: traditionalism is an old dragon, bad about squeezing the very life out of its victims. So never stop fighting it.

If some corporate position is the god of your life, then something terrible occurs within when it is no longer a future possibility. If your career, however, is simply a part of God's plan and you keep it in proper perspective, you can handle a demotion just as well as you can handle a promotion.

We need heroes. I mean genuine heroes, authentic men and women who are admired for their achievements, noble qualities, and courage. Such people aren't afraid to be different. They risk. They stand a cut above.

Life is a lot like a coin; you can spend it any way you wish, but you can spend it only once. Choosing one thing over all the rest throughout life is a difficult thing to do. This is especially true when the choices are so many and the possibilities are so close.

My hope has been to create an appetite for grace that is so strong nothing will restrain us from pursuing the freedom and spontaneity it can bring—a longing so deep that a new spiritual dawn, a "grace awakening," if you will, cannot help but burst through the wall of legalism.

When I consider the magnetic effects of gracious giving, four qualities immediately emerge. First, grace is so attractive: Grace individualizes the gift. When you give by grace, you give individually. You give proportionately to your own income.