CONDUITS OF BLESSING -- Devotional for September 2, from "Good Seeds"

Joseph said, “Don’t interpretations come from God? Tell me your dreams.” (Genesis 40:8)

An old song says, "You tell me your dreams, and I’ll tell you mine." What good does this do? you ask. But that’s the wrong question, for this is a love song, and the answers sweethearts give to one another simply serve as an excuse to linger a bit longer in one another’s company! Though there would be no official interpretation of the dreams, the unofficial ones would be wonderfully satisfying! But the dreams referred to in today’s Scripture are of a far more serious, even desperate, nature. The Pharaoh’s butler and baker have somehow fallen out of favor with the king and find themselves cellmates of Joseph in the royal prison. While there each man has a mysterious and disturbing dream. After sharing them with Joseph he correctly interprets their meanings. Now, it is a mistake for us to surmise that dreams always have great significance, or that we can receive heavenly guidance from them. Nevertheless, we do see in the Bible cases where God does indeed reveal His will to men through their dreams. Just as once in a great while God chooses certain ones to hear and record His Word to mankind (see II Peter 1:20,21), so there have been those rare individuals whom God has gifted with the miraculous ability to understand and interpret dreams, dreams given by God for a specific purpose. Two such men were Daniel and Joseph. It was an ability they neither asked nor trained for. But the 100% accuracy seems to say it was from God! Now, compare this miracle with your spiritual gift: though you may receive much satisfaction in the exercise of it, you can take no credit for any good that comes from it, for it’s all of God. Joseph had it right when he said, “Don’t interpretations come from God?” Such gifts and abilities are not God’s gift TO us, but THROUGH us, to others. We are not the intended recipients, but rather the conduits, of the blessing God is aiming at someone else. Our joy is the same as John’s when he said, “The bride belongs to the groom. But the friend of the groom, standing nearby and taking it all in, finds his joy fulfilled in witnessing the joy of the happy couple” (John 3:29-30). Joseph’s greatest pleasure was in serving God by doing His work in the lives of others. That joy can and should be ours, too. O to be as faithful as Joseph in serving God, in the midst of the most adverse circumstances! O that God would be as confident in us as He was in Joseph, to entrust to us the message or the blessing He has for someone else! And O to have the holy boldness of Joseph to not hold back but to go right to work when we see the task God has set before us. Are we as ready to say to the one God sends to us, “Tell me your dreams”?