Scripture tells us that God looks at the heart of individuals.  He sees where others cannot.  He knows when we have unseen defeats and unseen victories.

As 2018 unfolds, day by day, we are to work at winning those daily battles which no one sees but God.  The times we hold off saying that biting, stinging word of retaliation – that is a victory.  The times we choose to show love to an unloving and unkind individual – that is a victory.

Thinking about the life of Joseph, Scripture does not tell us all of the unseen victories in his life.  But the results in his life, of being victorious, are there for us to read.

One example of an unseen victory: when his master’s wife tried to daily seduce him, he refused… until the day he actually ran out of the house.  That was victory!  Day after day he was victorious in fighting that temptation.  (Genesis 39:1-18)

However, he ended up in prison for years.  How many?  We don’t know.  We do know he was in prison for more than two years.  (Genesis 40:1-23; 41:1)

Being spiritually victorious does not mean commendation or congratulations.  For Joseph it meant prison.

Other unseen battles were fought while he was in prison and he had to have fought the battles of discouragement, resentment and self-pity.  And his life reflects his victories of trusting in the living God.

Victories, the unseen victories, will be growing us, maturing us, strengthening us.

~ Take it to heart ~

(NASB) Ephesians 3:14-19 “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,
16 that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”

Unseen Victories are waiting for you!
“…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…”