Do You Have Goodwill? (Includes a Study on Jealousy)

Acts 7:9 – “Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him

Acts 7:10 – and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.

The brothers of Joseph were jealous of Joseph. They felt Joseph was being treated better than them by their father. They felt that Joseph was on a better trajectory in life than them. Out of jealousy, they decided to harm Joseph by selling him to slavery. They were eliminating competition.

A person driven by jealousy has no boundaries on who they can harm. Such a person would harm a blood relative with ease. The blood brothers of Joseph sold him to slavery, hoping never to see him again. All because of jealousy. All because they were unable to be better than Joseph.

When the jealousy team thought they had succeeded in dimming the light of Joseph, God appeared and raised Joseph up. When you act in jealousy against anyone, God comes to their rescue. God ensures the person is permanently better than you. Any chance of being better than that person ends when you act in jealousy.

God raised Joseph up above where the jealousy brothers would not even dream of reaching. Then God delivers a lesson by causing Joseph’s jealousy brothers to go and beg from him. If you are a jealous person, God will soon deliver two painful lessons, by first raising too far above your dreams the person you dislike, and secondly by causing you to go and eat a humble pie by begging for help from the person you are jealous about!

Examine yourself if you are a jealousy person. Seek divine help and even professional counseling. Focus on overcoming jealousy. Read Bible stories and stories of how God’s prospered by God’s grace that couldn’t be stopped by jealousy. Be assured that God has good plans for you that are unaffected by the success of someone else.

Be convinced that no amount of jealousy, hating, scheming against someone will stop God from blessing that person. You may succeed by harming him or her now, but when God raises them up, they will be out of your reach. You can’t stop the blessings of God!

Since jealousy can’t help you succeed. Since jealousy can’t stop God from blessing someone else. Then by all means avoid jealousy.

When Joseph’s brothers sold him out of jealousy, God stepped in. The Bible tells us that, “…God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles.” God rescues those we are jealously against. Our plans and schemes against them backfire eventually.

When Joseph reached Egypt, God gave him wisdom that enabled him to succeed. You can have school acquired knowledge, but lack wisdom. You can gain knowledge through experience but lack wisdom. Wisdom is God given. God gave Joseph wisdom and what followed is success. Instead of being jealous, have God given wisdom that will bring prosperity.

Finally and most important, God gave Joseph goodwill. Goodwill means he was likable by those he interacted with. Goodwill means the people he interacted with sympathized and empathized with him. Goodwill means those he interacted with trusted him, loved him and wished him well. Goodwill means they were positive about him.

Pharaoh was an absolute monarch, yet God made him have goodwill towards Joseph. The goodwill of Pharaoh enabled Joseph a slave to live a comfortable and better life. The goodwill of Pharaoh made Joseph to rise in rank above everyone in Egypt. Do you have goodwill?

Do you have goodwill from your relatives? Do you have goodwill from your neighbors and friends? Do you have goodwill from your bosses and superiors? Do you have goodwill from your teachers and supervisors?

Goodwill is not acquired from school. Goodwill cannot be bought. Goodwill that is effective and sustainable comes from God.

Gods gave Joseph goodwill and he lived a good life. God gave Joseph goodwill and thought a slave he lived like a freeman. God gave Joseph goodwill and he rose in rank. Only God can give goodwill from those whose goodwill will change our situations. May God grant us goodwill, in Jesus’s name, Amen!

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