Your colour can be a handicap.
Being half African and half European has its amazing challenges. When I am in Europe and America, everyone sees me as a black man. When I am in Africa, everyone sees me as a white man. In effect, I do not belong to any of these places. I used to feel sorry for myself because of my brown colour. ‘I don’t belong anywhere’, I thought to myself. As I began to travel around the world, I found out that I actually fitted into more countries than I thought. In South Africa, I pass for a ‘coloured person’. At different places I have been asked whether I am Somalian, Ethiopian, Malaysian, Indian, Indonesian, Pakistani, Columbian, Brazilian, Latino, etc. As my international ministry grew, I found out that my limitation was actually an advantage.
4. Your marriage can be a handicap.
Everybody has a different kind of marriage. Some people have A1 (excellent, ideal) marriages. Others have P5 (prison, suffering, bondage) marriages. Perhaps you married someone who is not an ideal partner. Perhaps you have an unpleasant, quarrelling, malicious, and contentious wife. Perhaps you feel sad that you backed the wrong horse and are yoked to an unfortunate circumstance.
Joseph was in prison, which is a ‘type’ of bad marriage. He used this handicap to rise into prominence and leadership. Your difficult marriage is giving you certain important qualities. Every difficult marriage releases two key spiritual treasures into your life – humility and wisdom. People who do not have difficult marriages do not have the same level of humility as those with difficult marriages. Those who have A1 marriages often develop a subtle pride about their ideal and harmonious lives. You will hear them saying things like, “Why don’t you pull yourself together and be a good husband so that you can have a good marriage.” They will suggest six principles that they have followed for years, explaining that these principles always lead to good marriages. A1 marriage partners often suffer from pride, whilst P1 marriage partners are blessed with the humility and humiliation of their circumstances.
The other key quality that is released through your difficult marriage is the key of wisdom. You need superior wisdom to outmanoeuvre a cantankerous or accusative woman and continue to dwell peacefully with her. Solomon advised dwelling in the desert or finding your way to a rooftop. It takes supernatural wisdom and strategy to dwell with an unfaithful man who beats his wife and comes home with HIV viruses to download into her.
After many years of a P5 marriage, you will become a wiser and more humble spouse who appreciates and understands other people’s problems. A person with an A1 marriage will not have this advantage and can even become insensitive to people’s problems.
So Joseph’s master took him and put him into the jail, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; and he was there in the jail.
But the LORD was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.
The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it.
The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph’s charge because the LORD was with him; and whateverer he did, the LORD made to prosper.
Genesis 39:20-23 (NASB)
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