Giving credit to God

“We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret them.” Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.” ‘

Genesis 40:8

Joseph did a great job of giving credit to God throughout every aspect of his life.  When he was first sold into, slavery in Egypt he worked for is Master with God’s grace.  When Potiphar’s wife asked to sleep with Joseph, he said, “How can I disrespect God?”  When he was thrown into prison he was not combative, he did not ask God why did you do this to me, instead he trusted that God had a plan.  Now when the cupbearer and the baker came to him to interpret their dreams he did not answer them, “Why yes I’d be happy to interpret your dreams.  I’m a master of dream interpretation.”  Instead, he said, “the interpretations belong to God.”

Joseph didn’t live the easiest life.  Being sold into slavery at the age of 17 by his brothers.  Having to say no to a very seductive woman in Satan’s Temptation multiple times.  Being thrown into prison for no reason at all.  Joseph at every reason in the world not to trust God after everything we endured.  Still, he chose to trust that God had a plan and knew that everything must be happening for a reason.  

Do you give God full credit for everything in your life?  Do you trust that he has a reason for what happens, even if you can’t see the favorable outcome? 

I know that I don’t.  

I try hard to convince myself that God has a plan and that everything happens for a reason.  That’s the only way that I make it through some situations.  By knowing that God will use this to make me a better person. 

Even after enduring everything, Joseph did, he still gave credit to God.  He never lost sight of what was truly important.  Joseph kept his faith even when there was no reason to have any.  

A few things to think about:

If Joseph can keep his faith after everything that happened to him, what could happen would it cause you to lose your faith?

How can you use the situations that God has given you to help someone else through a hard time in their life?  Would you be willing to share your personal stories with somebody else to help them?

Are you willing to give God full credit for everything that happens?  Even when things aren’t going the way you want? 

Prayer

Lord, we’re so thankful for every situation that you put us in.  The grateful that you use those situations to help us grow.  Even when we can’t see how it helps us, we know that you’re using that for us.  God today we come to you again to ask for courage.  We pray that you would give us the courage to give you credit for everything that happens in our lives.  Not assign blame to you to give you credit.  Lord when someone comes to us for advice help us to do as Joseph did and not take credit for the advice.  However, to give you full credit for the wisdom.  Thank you for giving us the ability and the strength to endure trials and hardships in your name.

Amen

Will you pray with us?

Mankind throughout the world throughout our current situation

All Law enforcement and emergency response personnel

For all military personal serving our country and their families

Those in Leadership positions throughout the world

Prayer

Lord, today we come to you with HAPPY hearts.  We are so grateful that you give us the opportunity to change the lives of those around us.  We are grateful that you give us the wisdom to change our lives and the lives of those around us.  And you make it so simple. We can do it with a single smile. God today I would ask that you help us to smile more. The next time we see someone down, help us to smile for them. The next time we are down, help us to remember that you gave us the best gift ever. The ability to know you, your son, and the holy spirit. God, we are so grateful for everything you give us.

We ask all these things in your Precious Son's Name

Amen

A Little More

 The other day I got a call from one of our clients.

I love talking to our clients so I always smile when I answer the phone.

“Hey Dan, one of my drivers is pulled over and they are saying that our permit doesn’t cover what we weigh. Isn’t that why we hire your team to make sure that these things don’t happen!”

My smile immediately vanished.

I was shocked because my team is amazing. and it’s not like them to miss something like 20,000 lbs on a permit.

So, I asked him, “Who have you been working with, and who was the one who called our team to get the permit?” 

To get to the bottom of the problem I needed the details.

They gave me the details.

My next call was to my team. Then after I got the details I got them started on getting new permits to get the problem fixed. I’m a solutions guy, not an excuses guy.

But I NEED to know the real reason why it happened so that we can fix the issue.

My next call was to the driver so that I could see exactly what happened.

I knew he was going to be upset. He was pulled over and they were going to give him a HUGE ticket. I wouldn’t be happy either.

so……

I made sure not to smile when I made the call.  I had a serious look on my face. As we chatted I learned that he was the person who gave his weight to our team. I asked where he got the weights from and how in the world they were off by over 20K lbs!

That’s when he told me that he might have gotten the wrong scale ticket from the weigh station where he originally weighed.

Immediately my heart leapt with joy, this is NOT our fault!

Now to get the problem resolved and get this driver back on the road was my only goal.  I was not going to assign blame or make anyone feel bad. 

Hey, we all make mistakes. I do it multiple times every single day.

The owner of the company shot me a text. I'm getting permits from the big guys. They won’t make these mistakes that cost me time and $$$$$.

No problem.  Let me know if you need anything. We are here to help.

Well……..

After they called the “BIG Guys” they called me about 30 minutes later.

Hey, we can’t get an Idaho permit until Monday. It’s Friday night. And we need to drop this load off tomorrow afternoon.

I told him that I would NOT make any promises.

But my team went to work!

Guess what????

We got the permits that the “BIG Guys” couldn’t get.

My team had the Idaho permit in less than 20 minutes. For the right weight this time.

Here’s the point of all this.

When things don’t go right, smile. I have taught my whole team this.

That right there is how we got the permits. They smiled as they worked and it didn’t take any time at all.

Ok, there might be a little knowledge that went into this too. Lol

Next time you need anything DOT, don’t call the “Big Guys” , call the team who can get it done!

Dan Greer