Our Choices Matter

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading titled, Our Choices Matter, was written by Allison Keita.

A swimming instructor in New Jersey saw a car sinking into Newark Bay and heard the driver inside screaming, I can't swim, as his SUV quickly sank into the murky waters. As a crowd watched from shore, Anthony ran to the rocks along the edge, removed his prosthetic leg, and jumped in to rescue the 68-year-old man and help him safely to shore. Thanks to Anthony's decisive action, another man was saved.

Our choices matter. Consider the patriarch Jacob, the father of many sons who openly favored his 17-year-old son Joseph. He foolishly made Joseph an ornate robe.

The result? Joseph's brothers hated him, and when the opportunity arose, they sold him into slavery. Yet because Joseph ended up in Egypt, God used him to preserve Jacob's family and many others during a seven-year famine, despite Joseph's brother's intention to harm him. The choice that set it all in motion was Joseph's decision to be honorable and run from Potiphar's wife. The result was prison and an eventual meeting with Pharaoh.

Anthony may have had the advantage of training, but he still had to make a choice. When we love God and seek to serve him, he helps us make life-affirming and God-honoring choices. If we haven't already, we can begin by trusting Jesus. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Genesis chapter 39 verses 1 through 12. Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph's care with Joseph in charge. He did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well built and handsome, and after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, Come to bed with me.

But he refused. With me in charge, he told her, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house. Everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife.

How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her. One day he went into the house to attend to his duties and none of the household servants was inside. She caught him by his cloak and said, Come to bed with me.

But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. Let's pray. Dear God, when we're faced with difficult decisions, help us to make wise choices that honor you and benefit those around us. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening today. My name is Rachelle Traube and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.