The story of Joseph has ALWAYS been one of my favorites. Mainly because his life was literally filled with twists which you read about in Gen 39.

I’m well aware that I will never endure the same trials that Joseph went through, but the pain and confusion Joseph felt as he went through those trials is something everyone will experience in varying degrees throughout their life.

I had a situation happen to me yesterday that prompted me to record this episode. I was contacted yesterday by a potential client to see if I would be available to do some voiceover work, but they wanted to know if I would be comfortable with swearing. I thanked them for contacting me, but that I would not be comfortable with using that type of language. I was willing to let this job go because I didn’t want to compromise my beliefs and go against Col 3:8.

I was thoroughly prepared to lose this job, but something else happened instead. The person asked me if I would still be interested in looking at the script and reading the lines that did NOT have swear words in them. I’m glad I did because out of the whole script there were only three lines that I would not read. They hired me and were so pleased with the work that I did for them that they will be using me for another project.

This experience got me thinking about how God tests us in life. You have to be willing to let something go in order to gain something better. The degree to which your willingness to do so lies in how much faith you possess.

I’ll be honest. I’m a bit of a control freak, so needless to say, I’m not a big risk taker. It’s something that I’ve been working very hard to get rid of in my life. I conditioned myself to rely on what I see instead of relying on God. I was focused on the resource and not the Source which is God. Even though I never saw myself as a risk taker, living life purely based on what you see is a gamble.

Looks can be extremely deceiving. You can’t see all the obstacles that lie in your path, but God does. As a Christian, you have to be willing to take risks. Many times the things that God will ask you to do may not make sense. For example:

• God blessed Abraham with a son. Then asked Abraham to sacrifice his son only to stop Abraham from doing so at the last minute. You can read more about this in Genesis 22.

• Daniel got thrown into a Lion’s Den. The jealous men he worked with created a law which made it illegal to worship and pray to anyone other than King Darius. They knew Daniel would never worship anyone other than God. Therefore, Daniel was thrown into the Lion’s Den but did not die. God protected him. The next morning, King Darius discovered that Daniel was alive and that God protected him, King Darius had those that thought of this law thrown into the Lion’s Den. However, they did not make it because God was NOT with them.

• Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego found themselves in a similar situation because they refused to bow to King Nebuchadnezzer. King Nebuchadnezzer had them thrown into a furnace. He looked into the furnace and saw 4 people walking in the fire instead of three. The fourth person was the Son of God. King Darius later had the 3 men brought out of the fire and they were unharmed.

The one thing that all of these people had in common is that they were not willing to compromise their beliefs. They were willing to take the risk and obey God. They were literally leaving all the consequences in His hands.

These men could have easily allowed doubt to talk them out of their decision, but they had faith that God would never forsake His children (Heb 13: 5-6). This is something that Christians constantly have to remind themselves of because our world is accurately described in Is 5:20 as good being called bad…bitter for sweet and vice versa.

We can save ourselves the headache of experiencing unnecessary confusion by always taking the risk and betting on God to give us the desires of our heart (Ps 37: 4) provided we put Him first (Matt 6:33).

Thanks so much for listening to today’s podcast.  If you have enjoyed listening to the content as much as I have enjoyed creating the Hustle in Faith podcast, please consider becoming a supporter by donating any amount you feel compelled to give to help offset the cost of producing this show. Remember, if you’re everything to everyone then you risk being no one. Don’t forget to share this message. You never know who may inspire. See you in the next episode!

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Many people dream about being their own boss. However, many fail to realize that they already are CEOs of their own lives. Your life is your brand. How are you running your company?

I know this may come as a surprise, but most people who know me, know that archery is one of my favorite ways to relax (that’s me and my mom in the photo for today’s blog post!). 

I’m actually pretty decent at it. It takes a lot of patience, concentration and aim, but it’s all worth it when you hit the bullseye. It’s been a minute since I’ve been to the Archery range, so needless to say when I came across the story of Joash in 2 Kings 13 it got me thinking about the game in a totally different light.

Joash was the King of Israel and he came to Elisha for help to deliver Israel from the Syrians. Although Joash problem was physical “people were trying to destroy his nation”, yet he could only solve it by spiritual means. Hence, why Joash went to the prophet for help.

To help Joash defeat his enemy, Elisha took Joash through a process to demonstrate obedience. Elisha told Joash to take a bow and the arrows. Joash put his hand on the bow and Elisha placed his hands on top of Joash’s hand and. Elisha told Joash to open the East window and to shoot one of the arrows into the air.  

This obedience process was conditioning Joash to face his enemy. Since Joash was obedient in this endeavor, Elisha then said, “The arrow of the Lord’s deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them,” confirming that Joash’s obedience will ensure his victory.

In order to defeat the Syrians, Elisha then instructed Joash to take the rest of the arrows and to strike the ground. Joash only struck the ground 3 times and then he stopped. Elisha got angry because Joash should have at least struck the ground 5 or 6 times, so Joash could have completely destroyed Syria.

However, because Joash only struck the ground 3 times, he would only be guaranteed to defeat the Syrians 3 times.  This leads me to my situation.

How many of us have been in Joash’s shoes? For whatever reason (overconfident, fearful or whatever) we give up and quit in the midst of our crisis.

The real reason why many of us give up and quit is that we fail to realize that in order to resolve a physical problem you have to view it from a spiritual perspective.

I’ve felt like Joash so many times in my life. During my crises, I wanted to hurry up and get through it, which made me rush through the situation and half-heartedly obey God’s instructions. In doing so, I made my situation worse. I thought that God would just bless my half-hearted endeavors. I can’t get over how foolish that was on my part. Especially since in reality, I had chosen not to face my problem.

God specifically asked for Joash to open the East window because that’s where the army was located. God wants us to face our problems head on, not run from them. Many times when we try to resolve our issue, we choose the path of least resistance and end up hurting ourselves even worse.

Our approach in fixing our problem is often using a band-aid. As you know this can fall off at any time. However, if we go to God first, He gives us all the tools to completely heal the wound (aka our problem).

God blessed us with the tools we already have (our gifts and talents). We just needed God to bless our tools.  We do this by praying and asking God to intervene or help us in our endeavors.

This is precisely why Elisha placed his hands on top of Joash’s hands when he asked Joash to take the bow. Whatever battle we are fighting, God will take our tools (our gifts and talents) and cause them to work in an extraordinary way to deliver us out of the situation that was causing us harm and pain.

God knows that Satan will do whatever it takes to wear us down. This is why God always wants us to go to Him first so He can guide us in how we can win our battle. If we learn the concept to seek God’s guidance and solution first, our battle is already won even though it may not be over yet.

However, in order to ensure victory, we must follow God’s instructions all the way. Joash was well on his way to completely defeating the Syrians. Yet, because he only struck the ground 3 times instead of using all of his arrows, he was only guaranteed to defeat the Syrians 3 times.

How many of us are wandering around wondering why we keep encountering the same exact problems year after year? Could it be that you, like me, are half heartedly fighting your battles? Due to my half-hearted fighting, my enemies kept getting back up to do further harm to me. I made the matter worse by not completely obeying God. If you truly desire to live the Christian life you can’t half-heartedly listen to God’s instructions.

Here’s a perfect example. Last year, I was unemployed for almost a year. It was incredibly frustrating. I didn’t see an end in sight. I had my degree, plenty of experience, I even gained another certificate thinking this would help my quest to make ends meet. I was like Joash. Nothing that I did worked.

I was trying to fix my situations with a bow and arrow that God hadn’t blessed. I didn’t see a change in my situation until I went to God. I was trying so hard to fix a physical problem with a physical solution.

I finally realized that even though my problem was physical, I needed a spiritual intervention from God. I had no idea what, when and how to fix my situation. This is how you know that your problem requires a spiritual answer.

The way that I was finally able to resolve my situation went like this:

1. I went to God in prayer
   1. First I repented for not including Him in my life the way I should.
   2. I outlined my problem and asked God to show me what I needed to do.
   3. Then, I left everything alone.
2. I started to go to bed on time so that I could get some rest. I know this seems counterintuitive when you’re looking for a job, but after filling out over 400 job applications you earned it. God clearly knows you’re trying.
3. Through my faithful prayer and appealing to God based on His word, God showed me how to face and address my problems.

I kid you not after I had that long heart to heart with God, the tools (gifts and talents) He used to help me through my unemployment situation were things I had already been doing in my spare time.

Just remember that in your crisis God is there for you. He will not do the work for you. He will guide you out of the situation by telling you what to do, when to do it, etc. God will help us shoot our arrows but He will not shoot them for us. Facing and fighting our problems is our responsibility.

In order to free ourselves from our enemy, we must not give up and quit.

Thanks so much for listening to today’s podcast.  If you have enjoyed the content provided by the Hustle in Faith podcast, please consider becoming a Hustle in Faith supporter by donating any amount you feel compelled to give to help offset the cost of producing this show. Don’t forget to share this message. You never know who may inspire. See you in the next podcast!

In order to be notified when new content is available, please be sure to subscribe to my podcast on Anchor, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Castbox, Google Play Music, Overcast, Pocket Casts, or Radio Public.

Many of us are under the illusion that we’re in charge of our life. However, if you really want to see if you’re in charge of your life, take a moment to honestly answer the 3 questions in this episode.

Thanks so much for listening to today’s podcast. My goal is to help you both spiritually and physically. If this podcast has been a blessing to you, please check out my other websitestarengu.com.

I’m confident that my side hustle of helping others to invest in themselves via my youtube channel, podcast, and most importantly my online courses can be of assistance to you.

My courses are geared towards teaching people how to create their own website, and promote their endeavor through digital marketing, and so much more. You never know who you may inspire.

See you in the next podcast!