Whatever Became of Potiphar's Wife?
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"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." (NKJV)
"God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life." (MSG)
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There is a story in the book of Genesis about the wife of Potiphar who lustfully asked one of her servants, Joseph, to sleep with her. When he denied her twice, and ran away leaving her clutching his cloak, she sought her revenge by telling her husband Potiphar that Joseph, their slave, had tried to rape her - furious with Joseph, Potiphar sentenced his favourite servant to prison.
Whilst we understand well that Joseph's prison sentence did not stop God using him as he went on to become a master of nations, often we give very little thought in this story about what would have been going on in the mind of Potiphar's wife. A devotional I have been reading lately says that "Potiphar's wife seems to have been a hollow woman, whose soul was steadily decaying through the corrosive power of lust. Surrounded by luxury, she was yet spiritually impoverished." While she was empty of Godliness, she was completely full of herself. The power lies had in her life meant that she was ready to ruin an innocent man to fulfill her selfish desires.
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This scripture in the book of Psalm's is an amazing reminder that continually we need to come before God and ask him to give us a fresh start. The purity of our heart, is where our desire flows out of. What would have become of Potiphar's wife, had she allowed God to "Create in [her] a pure heart, O God". God's ability to create in her a steadfast spirit could have been the very thing that saved Joseph from ending up in prison, or the very thing that saved the relationship of trust between the pair.
To have a steadfast spirit means to have a spirit of loyalty - resolutely or dutifully firm and unwavering. Isn't it so important that we continually ask God to develop this kind of a spirit in us. One that is unwavering in times of temptation or neglect. A spirit so filled with Godliness that there is absolutely no room for us to become full of ourselves.
David's Psalm 51 - written in a somewhat similar circumstance to Potiphar's Wife, just after David was confronted by Nathan about the affair with Bathsheba, gives us an amazing prayer of repentance to God for areas of life where our sin's have gotten in the way of our steadfast spirit.
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God, I don't want my soul to feed on empty pleasures, to long for what belongs to someone else. Increase my hunger for you and create in me a pure heart, one that you will find irresistibly beautiful. Renew a steadfast spirit in me that my love for you might be loyal and unwavering - and help me to continually know that you've washed me clean. Help me to become so full of you and your spirit that I have no room to be full of myself. Thank you for loving me and for allowing me to know you personally, Amen.
Created almost 3 years ago
