100 Days Of Favor (6 page)

Today’s Prayer

Lord Jesus, I am so glad to know that You are with me not to find fault with me, but to encourage me, guide me and help me experience good success. Help me to always involve You and acknowledge Your presence in whatever decision I am making. Today, I look forward to seeing Your presence manifesting as supernatural wisdom and discernment in me to do what is right and full of life.

Today’s Thought

God knows all my idiosyncrasies and weaknesses, yet He doesn’t condemn me but loves me perfectly because of Jesus.

Today’s Reflection On Favor

DAY 11

It’s Not The End When The Lord Is With You

Today’s Scripture

And his master [Potiphar] saw that the Lord was with him [Joseph] and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand. —Genesis 39:3

D
O YOU KNOW
of anyone who is in a worse situation than Joseph when he stood naked in an Egyptian market, waiting to be sold as a slave? His whole world appeared to have collapsed around him. Just a few days earlier, he was in his father’s embrace but now, his own brothers had betrayed him. All that he owned had been stripped from him. He was reduced to nothing more than a slave in a foreign land.

When God’s presence is made manifest in your life, that’s when His glory shines forth through you!

Was this the end of Joseph? In the natural scheme of things, it sure looked like it was. But even with the odds stacked up against Joseph, the Lord was far from finished. Even in this dire situation, the Lord was with Joseph, and at this dark and bleak juncture in Joseph’s life, the Lord called him a successful man (Genesis 39:1–2)! Remember, it is not what you have. It is
who
you have that makes all the difference.

“How can the Lord make a young slave with not a single cent or possession to his name succeed?”

Well, let’s continue with Joseph’s story. Genesis 39:3 tells us, “And his master [Potiphar] saw that the Lord was with him [Joseph] and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand.” This is a powerful statement and it offers a promise that you can believe Jesus for, in every area of your life. Can you imagine every project, assignment and even errand that you undertake becoming prosperous? Your hands become hands of blessing.

You touch your family members and they are blessed. Your company may be struggling to manage a difficult project, but once it is placed in your hands, the project becomes blessed. You become a blessing waiting to happen to someone, waiting to happen to something, everywhere you go!

Now, how will this happen? The Lord Jesus will make it happen when you depend on Him in the same way that Joseph depended on Him. Joseph had nothing. He could not trust in his skills or experience (he had never been a slave), nor could he trust in his natural connections (his father was out of the picture because he believed that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal). All Joseph had was the Lord’s presence, and he depended on the Lord to manifest His presence, His power and His glory through him!

That’s what you and I need—a manifestation of His presence in everything that we do! You see, it is one thing to have His presence (all Christians have His presence because they have accepted Him as their personal Lord and Savior), but when His presence is made manifest in your life, that’s when His glory shines forth through you!

Don’t forget that Joseph’s master, Potiphar, was not a believer in God. He was an Egyptian who worshipped idols. Yet, when the manifested presence of the Lord shone gloriously through the work of Joseph’s hands, even this unbelieving heathen could see the tangible results of the Lord’s special anointing, power and blessing upon Joseph’s life. Potiphar marveled and could not but acknowledge that the Lord was with Joseph, and that “the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand.”

Now, isn’t it interesting that Potiphar did not merely conclude that Joseph was a good worker? Instead, Potiphar could see that it was not Joseph’s skills, but rather, his God who was prospering all that Joseph set his hands to. Genesis 39:3 tells us that “the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand.” This could not have been “spiritual discernment” on Potiphar’s part—he was not a believer and had no spiritual discernment when it came to the things of God. So this tells me that Potiphar must have witnessed tangible results that were really out of this world. He must have seen results that were so spectacular that he knew they were beyond that of an ordinary human being!

Perhaps Potiphar ordered Joseph to dig new wells for his household and every well that Joseph dug yielded water even in the midst of a drought. Perhaps the field that Joseph tended yielded crops that were shockingly bigger than the crops in the surrounding fields. Perhaps Potiphar saw how Joseph called upon his God when the children in the house were suffering from some epidemic in the land, and they were all healed. Whatever the case was, Potiphar knew that the prosperous results he had witnessed were not a result of Joseph’s natural abilities. They had to be due to the fact that the Lord was with Joseph, and God made all he did to prosper in his hand. Isn’t that beautiful? My friend, God wants to do the same in your life today. See Him leading and blessing you, and increasing your effectiveness today!

Today’s Prayer

Father, despite the negative circumstances in my life, thank You for reminding me that it is not the end for me. I will be successful because You are with me. Your unmerited favor upon me will cause the work of my hands to prosper and yield supernaturally good results! I shall see all that You have put in my hands abundantly blessed!

Today’s Thought

I can have success beyond my natural abilities and in spite of any negative environment because the Lord is with me.

Today’s Reflection On Favor

DAY 12

Start Your Day With Jesus

Today’s Scripture

It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness every night. —Psalm 92:1–2

D
O YOU KNOW
that God has promised that no weapon formed against you shall prosper (Isaiah 54:17)? Now, He did not promise that weapons would not be formed against you. He promised that even if weapons were formed against you, they would not hurt or defeat you.

Start your day with Jesus—practicing His presence, committing your plans to Him and trusting Him for His unmerited favor, wisdom and strength for the day.

There are all kinds of weapons formed against humanity, especially in these last days. Just think of the many kinds of deadly viruses, sicknesses and diseases in the world. When you turn on the television and watch the news, all you seem to hear about are wars, unrest, disasters, financial collapses, violence, unemployment, famines and new strains of deadly viruses. It is amazing how many people wake up in the morning, and the first thing that they do is grab the newspapers and read bad news before heading to work. Then, just before they go to bed, they watch the news!

Now, please understand that I am not against reading the newspapers or watching the news, or watching television for that matter. But I want to encourage you to start your day with Jesus instead, practicing His presence, acknowledging Him, committing your plans to Him and trusting Him for His unmerited favor, wisdom and strength for the day. Remember to be like Joseph in the Bible. The Lord was with Joseph and he was a successful man! Your success does not come as a result of you being updated about the latest virus or you being cued in to the latest disaster. No, your success will come as a result of your being tuned in to the presence of Jesus in your life!

There are many people in my church who start the day each morning by partaking of the Holy Communion, not as a ritual, but as a time to remember Jesus and the power of His cross. They look to Jesus for His strength, receiving His divine life for their physical bodies as they partake of the bread. They renew their consciousness of their free gift of righteousness purchased by the blood of Jesus on the cross as they partake of the cup. What a way to start the day!

I have also come to realize that the last thought before you go to sleep is very important. I have tried this before and you can try it too—go to bed thinking about Jesus, giving thanks to Him for the day. You can also meditate on one of His promises, such as the one found in Isaiah 54:17. Just say, “Thank You, Father. Your Word declares that no weapon formed against me shall prosper!” Most times, I wake up feeling rejuvenated, energized and refreshed even though I did not sleep for many hours.

Conversely, if I go to bed with what I have just heard on the news swirling in my mind, I could sleep many more hours than usual, but still wake up feeling fatigued. Sometimes I even get a headache. Have you been there before? Well, you don’t have to experience that again. Sandwich your day with the presence of Jesus. Start the day with Him, enjoy Him during the day and end the day with Him on your mind!

Today’s Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank You for Your presence with me today. Help me to be more conscious of Your unmerited favor toward me than of bad news that people are concerned about. Today, I commit all my plans to You, knowing that Your unmerited favor, wisdom and strength are always with me to prosper me and give me good success.

Today’s Thought

I’m going to sandwich this day with the presence of Jesus.

Today’s Reflection On Favor