| Loyalty Makes You Stand Out at Work |
|
|
| By Rick Warren — Apr 21, 2015 |
“Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man, and Potiphar’s wife soon began to look at him lustfully. ‘Come and sleep with me,’ she demanded. But Joseph refused. ‘Look,’ he told her. ‘My master trusts me with everything in his entire household …. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing?’”(Genesis 39:6b-9a NLT)
Loyalty is a quality that is in short supply in our society today. Nobody is loyal to anything anymore. There’s no such thing as brand loyalty. And people aren’t loyal to companies or bosses or leaders. They’re loyal to themselves.
It’s an old fashioned quality. But when a person exhibits a rare, old-fashioned quality like loyalty, that person gets promoted. It makes you stand out!
Loyalty is being faithful to your boss and to God when difficulty tests your commitment.
It’s easy to be loyal when everything is going great, but when the ship goes into the storm, that’s when real loyalty comes out. And because God is more interested in your character than your career, your loyalty will be tested. In the middle of those storms, he’s seeing if he can trust you with greater responsibility in Heaven.
Joseph had a really tough test. The Bible says, “Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man, and Potiphar’s wife soon began to look at him lustfully. ‘Come and sleep with me,’ she demanded. But Joseph refused. ‘Look,’ he told her. ‘My master trusts me with everything in his entire household …. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing?’” (Genesis 39:6b-9a NLT)
Now that’s loyalty! Joseph’s got a beautiful woman throwing herself at him, reassuring him, “You think I’m going to tell my husband? Are you kidding me? Nobody’s going to know. You can have your cake and eat it, too. You can be the master, and we can have a fling. It’ll be great. No harm, no foul!”
I’m sure Potiphar was an imperfect boss, because every boss is imperfect. I’m sure Joseph probably disagreed with his boss a lot of the time, because they were both human. Nobody gets it right all of the time.
But Joseph still turned her down because of loyalty to his boss. He honored the trust that had been placed in him by his master.
God looks at that kind of loyalty and goes, “That’s the kind of person I’m going to promote.”
Don’t you want God to say the same about you?
Talk It Over
- How can you exhibit loyalty to your business and boss?
- Why is it important for a loyal person to also be consistent?
- What do you want to accomplish in your work or career? How will being loyal to your company help you accomplish that?
Unhindered Prayers
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE:
"...Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered."
1 Peter 3:7, NLT
TODAY'S WORD:
Did you know that the way you treat people has an impact on the effectiveness of your prayers? The Bible says that the prayer of the righteous person is powerful. But if we aren’t treating others with honor, kindness and respect, then we aren’t allowing His righteousness to operate in us. When we don’t treat others the way we should, it closes the door to God’s power and hinders our prayers.
This is especially true in a marriage relationship. Marriage isn’t just an agreement between two people to live life together. Marriage is a God-ordained institution that helps us understand love and unity. When two people are married, they become one physically, spiritually and emotionally. This particular passage is directed toward husbands, but it applies to all believers as well. We should all treat others “with understanding,” which means considering the needs of others above our own. We should always aim to treat others with kindness, dignity, and respect and quickly choose forgiveness. The Bible says that the way we treat others is the way we treat God. So choose love and treat others with respect so that your prayers will not be hindered!
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Father, teach me to live in Your ways. Help me to always treat others with love and respect, which shows that I honor You. Show me how to be a blessing to others so that my prayers will be effective in Jesus’ name. Amen.
-
|
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment