Default Settings
The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered…..
Genesis 39:2
If you have ever had a problem with your computer will will know that it is possible to reset it to its default settings and that sometimes it is necessary to restart it in ‘safe’ mode. These default settings are the basic settings that it was provided with at the factory. This will hopefully return the system to operate in the way it was designed to.
If only that were possible for us sometimes. Just as our computers pick up ‘bad habits’ in the form of rogue programs, trojans, viruses etc. we can pick up bad responses to things. These bad responses are learned by bad experiences which give us a negative outlooks on life. As a child if something bad happens to us we learn not to trust people or if we are not give correct guidelines we don’t learn how to behave well in a situation. We have bad lessons and so we learn bad ways. Then if someone comments over our bad attitude we say ‘its not my fault, its because of….’ and find someone or something to blame.
In reality though we are responsible for our own actions and we can decide how we should respond to any given problem. A good example of this was Joseph. He had a terrible experience. Although he was loved by his father, he was despised by his brother who made fun of him. They then beat him and sold him into slavery. If anyone had an excuse to be negative and have suppressed anger at the world around him it would be Joseph.
But Joseph displayed a positive attitude which the Bible describes as ‘The Lord was with Joseph’. We cannot say if the Lord was with Joseph because he was positive or if he was positive because the Lord was with him. These are two sides of the same coin. The point is that Joseph stayed positive and followed Gods ways which were written in his heart. This is why when he was offered the opportunity to have an affair with Potiphar’s wife he refused. He could not go against God.
Even though this landed him in prison, he still refused to be negative. So again the Lord was with him and he ended up working for the warder. Do you see the common thread? Even though things seemed black Joseph refused to be beaten and become a complainer. And because he always went at whatever he did with a positive attitude, the Lord was with him.
So perhaps if we can always go at things with a positive attitude and do our best, whatever it may be, and don’t let the circumstances get us down, the Lord will be with us. Let our default setting be a positive one.