Serve your gift...

...and it will serve you in return.

A few weeks ago, my husband were talking about Joseph - that's where this topic came from.

We were talking about his experience in the prison and how he could have withheld his gift.

Let's read select verses in Genesis 40,
⁵ While they were in prison, Pharaoh’s cup-bearer and baker each had a dream one night, and each dream had its own meaning. ⁶ When Joseph saw them the next morning, he noticed that they both looked upset. ⁷ “Why do you look so worried today?” he asked them. ⁸ And they replied, “We both had dreams last night, but no one can tell us what they mean.” “Interpreting dreams is God’s business,” Joseph replied. “Go ahead and tell me your dreams.” (NLT)

Unsolicited he offered to help then i.e. serve his gift so the butler shared his dream - v. 9-11. After hearing it, Joseph could have withheld the interpretation for several reasons: 

- he could have doubted if he had the platform to interpret dreams since neither of his 2 dreams had been fulfilled (yet) or

- he could have been a "dog in a manger" knowing that in 3 days, he Joseph will still be in prison while one of them would be restored and the other destroyed 

...yet he proceeded to share the interpretation:

¹² “This is what the dream means,” Joseph said. “The three branches represent three days. ¹³ Within three days Pharaoh will lift you up and restore you to your position as his chief cup-bearer. ¹⁴ And please remember me and do me a favor when things go well for you. Mention me to Pharaoh, so he might let me out of this place. ¹⁵ For I was kidnapped from my homeland, the land of the Hebrews, and now I’m here in prison, but I did nothing to deserve it.” (NLT)

We know how this story ended in Genesis 41 after Pharaoh had 2 dreams no one could interpret, the butler caused God to remember Joseph. Joseph's gift of interpreting dreams would have been no use to him or to anyone else if he hadn't served it to others. It was only in serving his gift to others that he was served and promoted in a strange land. Daniel who was also in a strange land, was served then promoted by serving his gift.

God's expectation of us is clear:

Just as each one of you has received a special gift [a spiritual talent, an ability graciously given by God], employ it in serving one another as [is appropriate for] good stewards of God’s multi-faceted grace [faithfully using the diverse, varied gifts and abilities granted to Christians by God’s unmerited favor].*

So serve your gift...and it will definitely serve you in return.

* 1 Peter 4:10 - Amplified