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Remember, God who sees what others don’t is the true source of all promotion. | New Hope for the Week
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Remember, God who sees what others don’t is the true source of all promotion.

Today I will:

  • enjoy doing a good job
  • be a blessing to my company
  • let my effort and quality of performance speak for themselves

Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.   Proverbs 22:29 (ESV)

So many of us mentally ascend to the truths we read in the Bible or hear preached on Sunday morning. We shout out "Amen!" and "Hallelujah!" and nod approvingly. We agree with the wisdom found in Office politics, nepotism, discrimination, favoritism-any of us who have been passed up for promotion have probably heard or even used one of these terms as an excuse to describe why the promotion didn't come our way. Yet should we be complaining? The Bible tells us that all authority-even unfair authority-is appointed by the Lord. (See Romans 13:1-2; 1 Peter 2:18-24.) When we don't get the rewards we believe we deserve, we should see it as an opportunity rather than a strike against us. Will we choose to trust in the Lord for our promotion or in our own strengths, skills, and abilities to "work the system"?

When Joseph was in his teens, he had a dream that he would one day be top dog in the nation of Israel (which at the time was just his family). However, what awaited him? Slavery, where he performed incredibly well serving another and building his household, and imprisonment, his reward for his faithfulness to his master and God in rejecting the advances of Potiphar's wife. (See Genesis 37:36; 39:20.) For thirteen years, he suffered as the servant of others, each time, however, rising to a place of honor because of the sincerity of his obedience. Did he get bitter and curse his luck and the unfairness of his setbacks? We have no indication that he did so. Instead, we . see that he obeyed his earthly masters "with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as unto Christ . . . doing the will of God from the heart" (Ephesians 6:5-6 KJV). For this obedience, he went from prison to vice-president in one day-all because he was faithful and sought God more than his own promotion.