God-reflexed

The Word for today:
Genesis 45

mark this: Genesis 45:8
Joseph, to his brothers: "So it was not you who sent me here, but God."

In a classic (1980's?) television commercial for V8 Tomato Juice, an actor finishes another type of drink -- a cola of some kind -- then pops himself in the head and says, "Gee, I could have had a V8!"

The inference is that V8 would have been more healthful and just as refreshing as the cola. But we are not V8-reflexed. We tend to think of soda pop on a hot summer day before we think about vegetable juice.

I often experience the same syndrome concerning God. When problems occur, I turn reflexively to my own resources for the answer. I'll attempt to reason my way through, or weasel my way out, or talk myself past the problem. The first solution I turn to is myself.

After all of that inevitably fails, I pop myself in the head and think, "Gee, I could have gone to God!" I could have prayed first, or waited for spiritual clarification, or applied the principles of His Word. But God is all too often an afterthought for me.

We all know that what people do in reflex is very revealing of what is within. For Joseph, turning to God was the habit of his mind. For example, when the cupbearer and baker mentioned their dreams, Joseph instantly referenced God: Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me (1). In this, Joseph foreshadowed the way Christ himself would live.

I am slowly making God my first instinct, but I have a long way to go before I become as God-reflexed as Joseph was.

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(1) Genesis 40:8; other examples of Joseph's God-reflex are found at 39:9; 41:16, 51, 52; 45:8.