Stress Test Devotional May 4
May 04, 2024
GENESIS 41:46-49 | 46 Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt. 47 During the seven plenteous years the earth produced abundantly. 48 He gathered up all the food of the seven years when there was plenty in the land of Egypt and stored up food in the cities; he stored up in every city the food from the fields around it. 49 So Joseph stored up grain in such abundance—like the sand of the sea—that he stopped measuring it; it was beyond measure.
Bigger barns don’t mean anything, unless as surplus, their resources are put to holy uses.
Now, Joseph was one of history’s first entrepreneurs. He managed, with God’s help, to rise from an Egyptian jail to become Pharaoh’s vice-chancellor. This remarkable reversal, however, is not the centerpiece of his story. What makes his tale unique is what he does with the opportunity.
Egypt’s economy was agrarian and the farming yields dependent on the yearly flooding of the Nile. Too little flooding was a disaster, as was too much water. Either way, low crop yields meant famine and disaster. Joseph brought together innovative ideas, resources, and hard work to create a solution. He saved the extra margin of high-yield years to cover the shortages of low-yield seasons.
How are you displaying resources in holy ways?
Are you entrepreneurial?
