What Happens if I Let My Emotions Rule Me?

    Have you ever been jealous of something another person has?  Has that jealousy ever caused you to do something out of character?  Have you ever looked back and asked yourself how did that even happen?  When we allow our emotions to have more control over us than we should, then we have a life of regret and embarrassment.  Emotions are meant to let you know that you are alive.  They are meant to be indicators of boundaries.  They are meant to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, so He can talk into your life.  If you allow other things to speak, then your emotions take a wrong turn and cause you and those around you heartache.

    God was with Joseph.  Back then the Holy Spirit did not reside in a person all the time.  He could go at anytime, but if God was with a person, then that means the Holy Spirit stayed with that person.  It was rare, so of course anyone watching would be jealous.  When God is with you, anything is possible.  Joseph succeeded in all he did and rose quickly from a slave to head of a house.  Joseph was also handsome, so he got noticed by his employer's wife.  She tried to get him into her bed.  She pursued him to the point that he literally fled from her.  This rejection hurt her feelings (pride), so she told her husband that Joseph tried to rape her.  If course her husband was jealous and outraged.  If that were true, then Joseph would have done an evil deed.  God does consider adultery evil.

    Potipher's jealousy caused him not to think rationally.  Why would Joseph do this?  He never questioned the man.  Instead, Potipher threw Joseph into prison.  Twice in a short time Joseph was confined.  It would have been easy to give into self-pity.  Instead, Joseph chose to see how God was working even in prison.  He saw that he was being blessed in the worst place possible.  The prison system was not like it is today.  It was hell on earth where you could easily starve to death or if you got ill never be attended.  Joseph's faith was rewarded.  He rose in prison and was put in charge over the prisoners by the warden.  Joseph succeeded in all he did because he did not allow emotions to rule him.

Genesis 39