Always Rise to the Top
Today's Scripture:
And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man…Genesis 39:2, KJV.
Today's Word:
In scripture, many heroes of the faith started out at the very bottom. Think of Joseph. He was thrown in a pit and sold into slavery by his own brothers. But even as a slave, he developed his skills. He was so valuable that he was put in charge of his master’s whole household.When he was falsely accused and put into prison, he was so valuable there that they put him in charge of the whole prison. What is that? Cream rising to the top. When Pharaoh needed someone to run the country and administer the nationwide feeding program during the famine, he didn’t choose a cabinet member; he didn’t choose his department head. He chose Joseph, a prisoner, a slave. Why? Joseph developed his skills right where he was. His gifts made room for him, and he was always rising to the top.
Friend, there’s never an excuse to not keep rising. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like your current job; it doesn’t matter if other people don’t treat you right. God is saying, “It’s time to get out of the pit.” It’s time to shake off the past. It’s time to rise to the top!
Prayer for Today:
Father, thank You for the gifts and talents that are within me. I choose today to have an excellent spirit. I choose to shake off the old; I choose to forgive. I take my eyes off of my circumstances and lift my eyes to You knowing that You are the one who lifts me up in Jesus’ Name. Amen.PS...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ4iVWVJBoU
“You must also rid yourself of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.” (Colossians 3:8 NIV)
You only have a certain amount of emotional energy. In a conversation where you’re trying to resolve conflict, you can either use that energy to fix the blame or you can use that energy to fix the problem. You don’t have enough energy to do both. So you’ve got to ask yourself what’s more important, to blame the other person or to resolve the conflict. Fix the problem, not the blame.
Every married couple needs some ground rules for fighting fair and words you’re just not going to use. There are some things you should never, ever say in a marriage — they’re weapons of mass destruction.
During the Cold War, when Russia and America were at each other’s throats, America had thousands of intercontinental missiles aimed at Russia. We could destroy the entire nation. Russia had thousands of intercontinental missiles aimed at us, too. Even when we were at the worst point in the Cold War and there was enormous tension, both sides still had enough sanity to say, some weapons we just aren’t going to use because they’re “MAD” — mutually assured destruction. If you use yours, we’re going to use ours, and we’re going to destroy each other, and there won’t be any countries left. So even when we were on opposite sides of an issue, we could at least agree not to use those weapons.
There are some weapons of mass destruction that should never be used in your marriage, like threatening divorce or threatening to walk out or bringing up somebody’s parents. You have to agree that no matter how upset you are with each other, those words are off limits, because they destroy the relationship by tearing down trust.
The Bible is very specific about what’s out of bounds. Colossians 3:8 says,“You must also rid yourself of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips” (NIV). Those are weapons of mass destruction.
The reason why we fix the problem and not the blame is because blaming is a form of judging, and only God has the right to judge. You’re not the judge. You can’t figure out anybody else’s motivation. You don’t know your own motivation most of the time! Only God knows. Let him be the judge.
You focus on fixing the problem.
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