LIVING WORD DEVOTIONAL
By Pastor Mensa Otabil
Sunday 19th December 2021
JOSEPH FOLLOWED GOD’S GUIDANCE
Scripture Reading: Matthew 1
Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus. Matthew 1:24–25
God spoke to Joseph in a dream. He could have woken up from the dream and downplayed the message he received as a figment of his imagination. But that is not what Joseph did. When he awoke from sleep, he recognized that what he had heard in his dream was a message from God.
Joseph might have been a spiritually minded Jew who could discern spiritual moments. There are people who are so naturally minded that they are unable to appreciate a divine visitation. Are you spiritually sensitive to God? Do you hear when He speaks to you?
Immediately Joseph woke up, he set his heart to obey the Lord’s instruction. He trusted in the faithfulness of the Lord. Here’s what happened afterwards:
• Joseph was obedient to God. The idea of the Holy Spirit overshadowing a woman was strange to Joseph, but he was a student of the Torah. He was familiar with how the Spirit of God overshadowed the watery earth as recorded in the first words of the scriptures. Joseph might have seen a parallel between what the Holy Spirit did to the earth at the beginning and what Mary had experienced. He believed that the God of miracles had chosen him to raise the Son of God.
• Joseph respected what God was doing through his wife. With a deep sense of reverence for what the Lord had chosen Mary for, Joseph allowed the Holy Spirit to complete what He had begun to do in the life of his betrothed wife. He did not intimately know Mary until the child was born.
• Joseph provided a covering for the Son of God. He accepted Mary’s son as his own and named him publicly. Joseph named the child, Jesus, as he had been instructed by the Angel of the Lord. He later raised the child in his occupation as a carpenter.
In Joseph, we see a pious man making godly decisions during a time of confusion and uncertainty. Can the Lord trust us to also make such decisions?
Prayer: Heavenly Father, I know that your ways are better than my ways. Give me the strength to follow your leading at all times. In Jesus’ name, Amen.