Daily Hope Devotional

“Joseph lived in the home of Potiphar, his Egyptian owner. Soon Potiphar realized that the LORD was helping Joseph to be successful in whatever he did. Potiphar liked Joseph and made him his personal assistant.”   (Genesis 39:2-4a CEV) If you want to stand out at work, you need to be likeable. If people don’t like you, they’re not going to trust you, and they certainly won’t promote you. A lot of people think that likeability is just a matter of personality. You’re either a likable person or you’re not. But nothing could be further from the truth. Likeability is not personality; it’s character. It’s behavior. It’s how you choose to relate to other people. Likeability is possessing the attractive attitudes — and those are choices — and the relational skills that cause others to want to work with you. Do you want to be liked by other people? Here’s the big secret: Like them. That’s it. If you like people, guess what? They’re going to like you. If you don’t like

“Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man, and Potiphar’s wife soon began to look at him lustfully. ‘Come and sleep with me,’ she demanded. But Joseph refused. ‘Look,’ he told her. ‘My master trusts me with everything in his entire household …. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing?’”   (Genesis 39:6b-9a NLT) Loyalty is a quality that is in short supply in our society today. Nobody is loyal to anything anymore. There’s no such thing as brand loyalty. And people aren’t loyal to companies or bosses or leaders. They’re loyal to themselves. It’s an old fashioned quality. But when a person exhibits a rare, old-fashioned quality like loyalty, that person gets promoted. It makes you stand out! Loyalty is being faithful to your boss and to God when difficulty tests your commitment. It’s easy to be loyal when everything is going great, but when the ship goes into the storm, that’s when real

“Potiphar … made Joseph his personal attendant. He put him in charge of his entire household and everything he owned. From the day Joseph was put in charge of his master’s household and property, the LORD began to bless Potiphar’s household for Joseph’s sake.”   (Genesis 39:4-5a NLT) What is your potential for growth? Are you going to read any books in the next year? Are you going to take any seminars? Are you going to grow? Are you going to develop any skills? Are you going to learn any relationship skills? Or are you just going to be the same 10 years from today as you are right now? Capacity is your potential for growth. It’s important because people who increase in competence are given greater responsibility in their work. All leaders are learners. The moment you stop learning, you stop leading. Growing businesses require growing people. The moment you stop growing, the business can’t grow. There are staff members who have been at Saddleback Church fo

If you want to make it in a career, you have to show audacity. Audacity is the courage to think big, to show initiative, and to take risks for a dream while facing the possibility of failure. In Genesis 37, we read the story of Joseph, who had a dream so incredible, so audacious that nobody in the world believed him. He dreamed that one day he would be a great leader and all his brothers would bow down to him. Was it the truth? Yes. Was the dream from God? Yes. Was it fulfilled? Yes. Was Joseph a little crazy to tell his brothers? Yes. Joseph had an audacious dream. When he shared it with his family,  “they hated him all the more …. When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, ‘What is this dream you had?’”  (Genesis 37:5b, 10a NIV) You’re going to have to step out in faith — even when it doesn’t make sense, even when people ridicule you, even when you’re afraid, even when the odds are against you. If God puts a dream in you

“Fear of man is a dangerous trap, but to trust in God means safety.”   (Proverbs 29:25 TLB) The root of all indecision is fear. We all have different kinds of fears. We’re afraid we’ll make mistakes and embarrass ourselves. We’re afraid that we won’t be able to finish what we’ve started. We’re afraid we’re not good enough. One of the fears that keeps us from making decisions is the fear of disapproval. Proverbs 29:25 says,  “Fear of man is a dangerous trap, but to trust in God means safety”   (TLB). The moment you start worrying about what other people think, it’s over, because fear of disapproval is always worse than disapproval. So how do you get rid of a fear? There’s only one way: Face it, and move against it. You do the thing you fear the most! At some point you’ve got to stop aiming and pull the trigger. The only antidote to fear is faith. You have to step out in faith. You’ve got to trust God and start moving.

When you have a major decision to make, the Bible says you need to count the cost:  “It is foolish and rash to make a promise to the Lord before counting the cost”  (Proverbs 20:25 TLB). Every decision has a price tag. You have to ask yourself what your decision will cost in four areas: time, money, energy, and relationships. I am basically giving you permission to tell people, “I’ll get back to you.” It’s OK to ponder and count the cost. Don’t be pressured, because there is a law of life that Proverbs and Ecclesiastes teach: It’s always easier to get in than get out. It’s easier to get in debt than out of debt. It’s easier to get into a relationship than out of a relationship. It’s easier to fill your schedule than  ful fill your schedule. It’s always easier to get in than get out. Luke 14:28-29 says,  “If you want to build a tower, you first sit down and decide how much it will cost, to see if you have enough money to finish the job. If you don’t, you migh

Are you facing a tough decision about what to do with your career or whether or not to change jobs? Fortunately the wealthiest businessman who ever lived also wrote two books of the Bible, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, and spread His wisdom about wealth and work. There are three first steps we can learn from Solomon’s wisdom in Proverbs that apply to any kind of major decision you need to make. How do you get started? First, check the Bible.   Before you get anybody else’s perspective on what you’re going to do, you need to go to the Word, and you need to get God’s perspective. The Bible says in Proverbs 2:6-7,  “It is the LORD who gives wisdom; from Him come knowledge and understanding. He provides help and protection for those who are righteous and honest”  (TEV). Stop listening for a voice, and start looking for a verse. Next, get the facts.   Proverbs 18:13 says,  “What a shame — yes, how stupid! — to decide before knowing the facts!”   (TLB) Before I started Saddle

“Commit your work to the Lord, then it will succeed.”  ( Proverbs 16:3) In 2012 a world record was set when Felix Baumgartner took the highest leap ever attempted with a 24-mile-high free fall from space that broke the sound barrier. Now that’s a giant step of faith! At some point God will ask you to take a big step of faith as you do the things He created you to do. You’ll probably never be asked to take as big of a step as Baumgartner, but it may feel like that when you’re changing employment. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 11:4,  “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done”   (TLB). My friend Mark Burnett is the most successful television producer in Hollywood today. He’s got top shows across several networks and created hits like “Survivor,” “Celebrity Apprentice,” and “The Voice . ” He’s also a devout Christian. When I asked Mark about stepping out in faith with an idea or something new, he said this

God wired you in a unique way and gave you certain talents, and He’s watching to see how you use your shape. Are you going to use your spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experience for yourself, or are you going to use them for God? Are you going to live for yourself, or are you going to make a contribution in the world using your shape? Psalm 33:14-15 says,  “From where He sits He overlooks all us earth-dwellers. He has shaped each person in turn; now He watches everything we do”  (MSG). Have you ever considered that God is watching every single moment of your life? There is no moment of your life when God is not paying attention. God never says, “I’m bored with her. That’s not important. I’m going to change the channel.” God actually says, “Before you were born, I had you in My mind. I have never missed one breath of your life.” One day, when your life on Earth ends and you go into eternity, you’re going to stand before God, and you’re going to g

“I have formed these people for Myself. They will praise Me.”   (Isaiah 43:21 GW) You are commissioned for a life mission! The Bible says in Isaiah 49:5,  “And now the LORD speaks — the One Who formed me in my mother’s womb to be His servant, Who commissioned me”  (NLT) Your shape — your spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences — equip you for your life mission and your life message. What is your life mission? It’s your life’s work. It’s what God created you to do on this planet. The body of your life work is your life mission. What is your life message? It’s what God wants to say to the world through you. It’s unique. It’s your message from your life to the world. I can’t give your life message, because I’m not you. You can’t give my life message, because you’re not me. You can only give your life message, and I can only give mine. If you don’t give your life message to the world, it doesn’t get heard. When an artist accept

I know many people who talk a lot about their dream jobs. They may be 60 or 70 years old, but they’ve never done it! They say, “I’m aiming to do  this .” When are you going to stop aiming and pull the trigger? You may say, “I’m waiting for my ship to come in.” It’s not coming in! You’ve got to swim out to it. Stop using all these excuses. You just need to get out and try something! Some people would like a little questionnaire where they can check off the boxes that will tell them what God wants them to do. They think that will tell them their dream job and life mission. That questionnaire doesn’t exist. There may be some that seem similar, but they don’t work completely. Why? Because you have talents you don’t even know you’ve got. The reason you don’t know you’ve got those talents is because you’ve never used them. You can take all the tests in the world, but your talent may not show up because you’ve never tried it. Before I became a pastor, I was a worshi

You can learn a lot from your experiences — good and bad. To apply them to your work, you have to go back over time and ask, “Where was I successful and where was I not? Where was I fulfilled and where was I not? What got me excited about work?” All of the lessons for your life are there in your experiences; you just have to spend time examining them. When you do, you’ll see that in every failure are the seeds of success — if you learn from them. Galatians 3:4 says,  “Did all your experience mean nothing at all? Surely it meant something!”   (GNT) Years ago I met an older gentleman who told me how getting laid off was the best thing that ever happened to him. He was 40 years old and had worked his entire life in a saw mill when his supervisor came in one day and told him he was fired — no severance, no retirement, nothing. He had no other skills, no other job training. When he went home and told his wife what happened, she said, “What are you going to do now?” He r

One of the most important keys to receiving God’s favor on your work is this: You must care about the people you work with. Even when they are irritable, even when they don’t like you, even when they make fun of you, even when they put you down for being a Christian, you must still be a friend to them. Why is this so important for success? Because the number one lesson in life, the number one reason God put you on this earth, is to learn how to love. God is love, and He wants you to be like Him. It’s easy to love people you like — the people you find it easy to get along with. So if God’s going to teach you real love, realize that he’s going to put you around unlovely people. The Bible says,  “Do everything with love”  (1 Corinthians 16:14 NLT, second edition). “Do  everything ” — that means in the office, in the car, on a sales trip — whatever. The good news is this really is not hard. It’s easy to underestimate the power of a kind word, a friendly smile, a pat o

“Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.”   (Colossians 3:23-24 NLT, second edition) Your boss is not really your boss. Your boss is Jesus. The Bible says,  “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ”   (Colossians 3:23-24 NLT, second edition). There are two things I want you to see in today’s verse: First, you will have a better attitude about work  once you understand that, no matter where you work or who you work for, your real boss is Jesus. It’s easier to be enthusiastic about your job when you stop thinking, “I’m doing this for my boss” or “I’m doing this for a paycheck” and instead start thinking, “I’m doing this

Did you know that, no matter what you do for a living, you can use your work to bring glory to God? You can use your business and your workplace to further God’s Kingdom. How do you do that? One way is to use your business contacts to spread the Gospel. I once got a call from a German man who is the president and CEO of a major international sports apparel company. He said he had just finished reading “The Purpose Driven Life” and that it changed his life. He told me, “I’ve read this book, and I am now a Christian. I just need to know one thing: Should I resign as CEO of my company and become a pastor?” I said, “No way! Let me show you how to use your job for the Kingdom, how to be a Kingdom builder and not just a wealth builder. “Do you have an executive team?” He said yes, there were six of them, and two of them were also Christians. I said, “You start meeting with those two and start praying for the other three. Your first ministry is to win your three cowor

In the book of Genesis, there’s the story of a man named Joseph. God gave Joseph a vision of becoming a great leader, but for 40 years he spent his life as a slave, and much of that time he actually spent working in prison. That was the testing ground of Joseph’s character, and when the day came and the time was just right, God pulled him out of that setting and placed him where he always intended Joseph to be. The whole time, God was growing Joseph’s character. God is far more concerned about who you are than what you do. He is much more interested in your character than he is in your career. But God does use your work and your workplace to develop your character. Your workplace is a life course in character development. Do you have a boss who drives you nuts? Think about this. God can use a boss who tests your patience, and he can use a workplace that you’re unhappy in to develop and grow your character. He plants seeds of love, joy, peace,

Meaning matters more than money. When you get to Heaven, God isn’t going to ask you, “How much money did you make?” He’s going to ask, “Did you make your life count? Did you express the talents that I gave you?” The Bible says in 1 Peter 4:10 ,  “God has given each of you some special abilities; be sure to use them to help each other, passing on to others God’s many kinds of blessings”   (TLB). That means the best work for you is the work that best expresses your talent. God has wired every one of us to do something different. The reason we all like to do different things is so everything gets done. We were made to make our lives count. People are happiest —  you  are happiest when you’re using the talents God gave you for something greater than yourself that gives your life meaning. The greatest cause in the world is the Kingdom of God. It is the Church. The whole reason the world exists is so God could build a family

“My purpose in writing is to encourage you and assure you that what you are experiencing is truly part of God’s grace for you. Stand firm in this grace”   (1 Peter 5:12b). The Bible tells us that God always finishes what He starts:  “God, Who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished”  (Philippians 1:6a NLT). It doesn’t say, “God might finish it.” It doesn’t say, “God hopes to finish it.” It says God  will  finish it. What does that mean? It means if you have really given your life to Jesus Christ, if you’ve opened yourself up to God and said, “Christ, be number one in my life,” you are going to make it to Heaven. There’s no doubt about it. Case closed. Done deal. You are going to make it across the finish line, because it doesn’t depend upon your performance; it depends upon God’s sustaining grace. The only question is how you finish the race. You know as well as I do that some