But while Joseph was there in the prison, ²¹ the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. ²² So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. ²³ The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

Even through the storms, the attacks, the degradation of Joseph’s character, the Lord was with him. This is the benefit of the Lord! Instead of removing us from every low point in our lives He walks with us. Just like Satan accusing God of Job’s relationship with Him, the world would think we only love Jesus because of His Earthly blessings if He simply kept us from all harm. The desire for the Lord wouldn’t be based upon His righteousness, but our laziness/comfort. So, He does not keep us from all pits and all struggles, instead He allows us to walk through those pits and have comfort “so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:4

The problem occurs when we, as believers, end up in a difficult scenario and we turn to the Lord with those accusing eyes we spoke about yesterday. This presents a major issue because we stop trusting the Lord to get us through it, instead we are angry at the Lord the whole time we are in it. The enemy wants us to flee the very source of freedom. Satan pulls us into a circumstance that the Lord allows so that He Himself will be glorified. However, once in the middle of it we remove the Lord’s involvement (aside from petitioning for Him to remove it). God wants us to apply the Truth we have learned about Him when we are in the hard times. This is what these moments are for! We are shoved into the darkest cave and are asked to let our light shine even brighter. However, our natural inclination is to put out the light and blame it for our location. Do not let the enemy steal your opportunity to praise the Lord. He has gone through everything to free us from the shackles that the world still has. He had to endure all possible attacks so that when we are in dark places we can trust the One who overcame!