“It is not in me”

“And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream,

and there is none that can interpret it: and I have heard say of thee,

that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it.

And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying,

It is not in me:

God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”

(Genesis 41:15-16)

Joseph was a man who knew that all good things come from God. He had no intention of taking this glory away from God. This is the kind of man or woman that God can use in mighty ways.

“I am the vine, ye are the branches:

He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit:

for without me ye can do nothing.”

(John 15:5)

Jesus Christ has created us, and he sustains us as we see in the 28th verse of the 17th chapter of the book of Acts (“…For in him we live, and move, and have our being…”). There really is nothing that we can do without him.

“I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me:

for I ought to have been commended of you:

for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles,

though I be nothing.”

(II Corinthians 12:11)

The Apostle Paul recognized that he was nothing in himself. Before Paul met Christ on the road to Damascus, his name was “Saul”. The name “Saul” was the name of the first king of Israel who was the tallest man in the entire nation (I Samuel 9:2). After Saul (who later became the Apostle Paul) was saved, his name became “Paul” which means “little one” (which is what Paul then understood himself to be).

“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves;

but our sufficiency is of God;”

(II Corinthians 3:5)

The verse above was written by Paul. In my lifetime I have heard some people refer to themselves as “self sufficient”. God sees this for the foolishness that it is.

“For if a man think himself to be something,

when he is nothing,

he deceiveth himself.”

(Galatians 6:3)

Anyone who thinks that they are “really somebody” is thinking as a fool. Pride is a great deceiver.

“Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth;

and mine age is as nothing before thee:

verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.”

(Psalms 39:5)

A wise person sees their lifetime as being very, very short. In fact, it is as nothing in God’s eyes. On our very best days we (in ourselves) are altogether vanity. “Vanity” means “a vapour”.

“LORD,

what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him!

or the son of man, that thou makest account of him!”

(Psalms 144:3)

When we understand this truth, we (like King David who wrote Psalm 144) are astounded that God would even think about us or take us into account at all! And yet, it is God who cared so much about you and me that he sent his only Son to die in our place.

If there was a day when you received Christ as your Savior, won’t you take some time today to reflect on the truth that without him you can do nothing? Won’t you, like Paul, realize that you are nothing in yourself? And won’t you, like Joseph, confess that “it is not in me”?

If you have never received Christ as your personal Savior, won’t you receive him today? Won’t you admit that you are a sinner in need of a Savior? Won’t you believe God when he tells you that there is a hell to shun and a heaven to gain? No one loves you like God does.

“For when we were yet without strength,

in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die:

yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that,

while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

(Romans 5:6-8)